Super Eagles and West Bromwich Albion defender, Semi Ajayi, has been included in the Championship Pundits’ Team of the Season, Completesports.com reports.
The list was compiled by Sky Sports experts Keith Andrews, Don Goodman, Andy Hinchcliffe, Scott Minto, David Prutton and Gary Weaver who selected their best elevens from the 2019/20 campaign.
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Ajayi’s teammates Romaine Sawyers and Matheus Pereira were also included in the list.
And commenting on Ajayi’s impact so far for West Brom: “Signed from Rotherham in the summer and has quickly established himself as one of the top defenders in the Championship.”
Ajayi, 26, has made 37 appearances and scored five goals in all competitions for the Baggies this season.
All five goals have come in the Championship where he has made 35 appearances.
He has been instrumental for West Brom as they push to return to English top flight the Premier League.
Prior to the suspension of leagues in England West Brom occupy second on 70 points, just a point behind leaders Leeds United in the 24-team Championship league table.
Ajayi made his Super Eagles debut in 2018 when he replaced Chidozie Awaziem during the 2019 AFCON qualifier against Seychelles.
By James Agberebi
12 Comments
One noticeable fact is that Nigerian players has been highly recognized in all their clubs and they have been doing extremely well since Rohr took over. This demonstrates dedication, commitment and compassion which was impacted on them surely by the national coach. Now the stocks of our players have positively increased, thanks to organization and Man management from coach Rohr. Now the likes of Barcelona, real Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea, man united, man city scrambling to sign our players. Countries like Germany, Belgium, Brazil, France, England, etc are now the ones enquiring for a top friendly with us. And some bad people says Rohr has done nothing. Pls recognized the efforts of this man in other for people to recognize you too. Berti vogts failed woefully with SE in 2008,despite having the strongest team in Africa then, ( don’t debate this with me, go and check the SE set up then) Clearance Seedof failed woefully with Cameroon, Klinsmann failed woefully with the American team and hertha Berlin, Brazil with all its stars was humiliated in 2014 n 2018 world cups, Germany and Spain could not go past the group stages of 2018 world cup, then what the crap are some haters saying about Rohr that pick up a team from the dust, qualified them for two succecive competitions with games at hand and even turning them to a world beater. He may not be the best but with this working condition and situations on ground he is the best for us. Yobo and other assistants doesn’t know what to do, until he instructed them to start checking on our players presently at home, what other ways of showing passion? This Agbaya Odegbami is running from one media house to another discrediting the great works Rohr is doing with SE, was he the only ex international? If he is that broke and needs some money he should kindly send his account details, we will donate for him, but if he thinks he can get rich by pulling someone down, he should have a rethink. And for Amaju and his NFF idiots, he should know that that office is not his permanent home, he will leave one day, what shall we say of your time? Sanni Lulu, Taiwo Ogunjobi, Sir Emeka Omeruah, Sanni Toro, Kojo Williams just to mention few are some of the people that have occupied that seat, they are all with their histories both bad n good, we will say something about you and your colleagues too. Rohr’s SE is the only national team that is giving us joy and hope, saving the face of Nigeria football internationally and you still want to spoil that too, even female football where we are formerly the giants has returned to obscurity, not to mention our age grades teams, no thanks to your nonsense administration. Pls leave Rohr alone atleast until after the next world cup.
Ola you’ve spoken our mind. The stupid Pinic wants to destroy the good work started by Rohr
Thanks bro, God bless @Muttalab
@ola please take it easy on them I think they get the message…..But I can feel your pain and passion and I want you to know that there are a lot of SE fans like you and I out there with real passion for SE and want the team to succeed… KUDOS brother
I understand your point AKP, but this people should not be handled with kid gloves, else they destroy everything. Anyway thanks bro, big respect
Semi Ajayi has really come of age this season,he has matured physically and his ball playing ability is now top notch,he has also added goal scoring to his game and he is a very dangerous threat in the opponent’s box 18 during set pieces…..What impressed me most is that he has kept the legendary Egyptian veteran central defender Elgazi on the bench this season at westbrom…keep it up ajayi I can’t wait to see you play in the EPL next season
Thanks just the truth!
@Ola, your comment is so touching.
Thanks
“That’s just the truth**”
sorry bout the error
Upon all this Excellent stats, good commendations and Top all round play that Semi Ajayi has enjoyed all through the season, wait for Rohr to include deservedly in the Starting XI and you see some so-called Super Eagles fan still come out to say things like “How can you start Ajayi ahead of…??”. Like really?? Of all Super Eagles defender, I stand to be corrected but what I know is Semi Ajayi has been the most consistent Eagles defender in Club and the Defender with highest goal scored. Dear Super Eagles fan, It’s high time we put our trust in Ajayi. He has proven to everyone that he’s a World class smart defender. We’re so lucky to have him play for us
Your right with goals scored but I think Awaziem consistency and energetic performance stands out. My player all through Europe this season with exception have done us proud and I wish them to continue that way next season if Coro will allow the world
If we can vividly recall when Gernot Rohr first invited this guy to national team a lots of people were condemning it saying someone that was playing for a mere unfancy roterharm united in English second tier and I remembered during the preparation for world cup quite number of people were calling on the coach to drop him from the team. The guy together with ola Aina was eventually dropped but today look at how they have developed themselves thanks to Rohr foresight. To those who are clamouring for home base players in national team not that Rohr doesn’t want to invite them but those who have been invited, how do they fare? You even heard him saying the other time that once they are invited today tomorrow they left the shore of the country to foreign clubs. Moreover, we all saw how this same based players with local coach failed to qualify for CHAN nation cup were was Mr Odegbami then and also when our age grade team and super falcons failed to qualify for world cup and Olympics respectively. All these the were under the tutolage of our local coach. Is this what he want for super Eagles team as well? so that they can start offering us useless advise of going back to yeye drawing board.
NFF should worry about finding good coaches for other national teams not the super eagles. G. Rorh has done very well. There is great progress in the super eagles, we can’t afford to make the mistake of changing him now.