New Everton recruit Christian Atsu looking to succeed where compatriot Alex Nyarko failed
Everton FC's new loan signing, Christian Atsu
A sorry sight, perhaps the lowest ebb for any Everton FC player in recent history and a regrettable and embarrassing incident all-round for the club and individuals involved.
The date was April 21 2001 and the venue was Highbury, north London.
With Everton trailing 3-1 to Arsenal, a frustrated away fan takes to the field of play topless and tugs at the shirt of the Blues midfielder Alex Nyarko in a gesture indicating that he feels he could do better than the Ghanaian.
His confidence already shot, Nyarko feels he cannot continue any longer and despite not being injured he requests that manager Walter Smith immediately substitute him.
Replacement Idan Tal duly enters the fray at Nyarko’s expense and when the player indicates afterwards that he wishes to call time on his Everton career, he finds both sympathy and support lacking from his boss.
Smith said: “Lots of questions come up - commitment, mentality. He gave up, which is not a great example to set.”
Germany's Benedikt Howedes (right) and Ghana's Christian Atsu battle for the ball
When asked on Nyarko’s plans to hang up his boots at Goodison, the Scot added: “I’ll need time to think about that...about five seconds.”
There have been players far less talented than Nyarko who have made a decent fist out of an Everton career - he began his spell with four goals in as many pre-season friendlies including an audacious back-heeled effort against Manchester City - but ultimately it seems that attitude issues cost him with the African seemingly unable to grasp the mentality needed to be a success in a royal blue jersey.
After a couple of seasons out on loan, Nyarko did actually return quite briefly under Smith’s successor David Moyes to attempt to resurrect his Everton career but it never amounted to much.
Since then, Africans coming to Goodison Park have enjoyed increasingly more favourable fortunes and new loan recruit from Chelsea Christian Atsu will be hoping to continue the upward curve as he becomes the first of Nyarko’s compatriots to subsequently join the club.
African football expert Mark Gleeson believes that Nyarko’s problems were of a personal rather than cultural nature.
He said: “I think the whole episode was more to do with Nyarko being a naff player rather than an African struggling to adapt to life in England.
“Maybe that fan might not have done the same to a homegrown player but he might also have seen beyond that and just not appreciated the performance.
“England was generally much slower than other former European colonial powers in embracing African talent but following the formation of the Premier League in the 1990s they adopted a much more international - not just African - outlook.
“Before then, Portgual had used the likes of Mario Coluna and Eusebio from their colonies in their national team from the 1950s and 1960s while the French League was packed with African talent from the 1970s onwards.
“In England there was always a more insular approach towards ‘Johnny Foreigner’ with an attitude towards African players of ‘yes he can dribble but he can’t do much else.’
“That kind of ‘Neanderthal’ attitude had largely died out by the time Nyarko was around though.”
Left winger Atsu could be competing for a place with fellow African Steven Pienaar, a player who while not necessarily possessing the archetypal attributes to be a success in the English game, has become a firm favourite at Goodison Park.
Cape Town-based Gleeson said: “What Pienaar lacks in stature he makes up in work and he’s very skilful. He’s a smart boy.
“He’s clever too but I’m not too sure what Atsu’s game intelligence is like.
“Like Pienaar he’s a bit slight but he was a regular for Ghana during the World Cup qualifiers.
“I felt he was a little invisible during the finals but then so were most of his team-mates.
“I was a bit surprised that Chelsea signed him as he wasn’t always in the Porto starting line-up.
“Maybe he’ll prove a few people wrong like Pienaar has done but he’s not going to be the next Didier Drogba, George Weah or Jay-Jay Okocha.”
While top African players like Atsu now grace many of Europe’s top clubs, Gleeson still fears for their national teams in tournament football although he blames such shortcomings on administrative problems rather than a lack of talent.
He said: “The proof is in the pudding and ultimately African nations have won bugger all in big competitions.
“Pele reckoned an African nation would win the World Cup before the end of the 20th Century but that’s been and gone and I certainly don’t see it happening in our lifetime.
“With each passing competition you think they’re getting closer but we’re still waiting.
“African football is so badly run, everything always unravels over money.
“The choices of national team coaches is often poor and there is no world class coaching talent on the continent.
“When they bring in European coaches, they rarely fit well.”
Gleeson added: “African nations need to follow the likes of Germany, Holland or even going further back France and set themselves a model and stick to it but it’s an ever-changing environment.
“They lack consistency because every couple of years it’s all-change.
“Often the desire for personal gain from individuals supercedes the bigger picture.
“It’s a case of ‘what can I get for me’ and ‘for me now.’”
Source: Echo
