Siasia raises the alarm over Arsenal’s plan to stop Iwobi from the 2016 Olympics

goal.com

The Nigeria U23 coach has come out of a meeting with a club negotiator unhappy over plans to stop the youngster from going to Rio 2016.

Nigeria U23 coach Samson Siasia  is spoiling for a fight with Arsenal over the release of forward Alex Iwobi for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Siasia was in London to speak with potential players and secure their club release during the final week of the Premier League and he met with Richard Law, an Arsenal official who has been described by the Independent as the fixer and contracts negotiator for manager Arsene Wenger.

The coach was obviously not happy about their meeting where he was informed that the club wants the player to secure a starting place in the squad next season instead of going to Brazil with Nigeria and risk falling off the pecking order.

Wenger seemed to have given permission to Iwobi to participate in the Olympics previously, but it now seems that the club has made a u-turn.

“I went to Arsenal and I saw Richard Law and he said that we still need to look at [the possibilities of the player going to the Olympics or not],” Siasia told Goal .

“He said that he wants Iwobi to stay with Arsenal because they are having a new team and Alex is getting to play in the team for now.

“He said if he leaves to play for Nigeria at the Olympics how is he going to be a part of the team and maybe someone is going to take his position.

“I said, well we have to meet half way because we are trying to give Alex a platform to show himself in the Olympics and he has to look at it that way too.

“He said we should continue to talk and we would see what we would do,” Siasia said.

However, a close family source allayed fears over the non-availability of Iwobi for the Olympic Games when Goal contacted them.

“The long and short of it is that Alex will be going to the Olympics. Wenger gave his words on the matter so there’s nothing to worry about,” the source assured.

Siasia has also told Goal about his team’s programmes for the 2016 Olympic Men’s Football Tournament.

“We will go to South Korea for the Four Nation tournament after that we will come back to the country and go to South Africa, then to England and also to the United States of America from there we’ll move to the Olympics venue in Brazil,” he said.

“We will camp in England and America. We will play three or four matches in America before we go to the Olympics,” Siasia disclosed.