Last weekend was special in England as it was tagged Super Sunday. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool were on parade. United hosted Liverpool in a match the defending champions won 3-0 at Old Trafford while Chelsea defeated Arsenal 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. It was a big day in the Premier League and the attention of the world was on England.

Michael Essien was on parade for Chelsea and, by implication, the flag of Ghana was hoisted in the Grand Slam. Emmanuel Adebayor was on for the Gunners to represent Togo. Cote d’Ivoire had four players on the field in the Chelsea-Arsenal game. Solomon Kalou and Didier Drogba were on for 90 minutes for Chelsea while Emmanuel Eboue and Kolo Toure featured for Arsenal.

Nigeria’s Mikel Obi started from the bench and only came on for Joe Cole in the 88th minute of the game. Drogba scored the two goals for the Blues to guarantee his team full points.

Nigeria has nine players in the Premier League and this is one of the reasons why people believe the country is blessed with so many star players.

Apart from Mikel, no other Super Eagles player in the Premier League featured in the Grand Slam Sunday.

The Grand Slam Sunday was just an indication of the current ratings of the Nigerian players. A colleague who was watching the match in the office with me was forced to ask, ‘Where are the Eagles?’

I have mentioned this point in this column before. The Eagles are playing for average teams abroad and this is not good enough.

In Spain, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia are the top teams. Real and Valencia met also on Sunday in a crunch encounter. Mahamadou Diarra of Mali is a regular at Real. Freddie Kanoute and Seydou Keita, also of Mali, and Cote d’Ivoire’s Aruna Kone are in Sevilla.

Cameroun’s Samuel Eto’o plays for Barcelona along with Cote d Ivoire’s Yaya Toure.

Taye Taiwo is the only Nigerian plying his trade for a prominent club in France –that is Marseille. Obafemi Martins quit Serie A giant Inter Milan for middle-of-the-pack-team, Premier League side Newcastle.

For now the national U-23 team is the nucleus of the next generation of Eagles. However it is pertinent to note that none of them is featuring for a big team abroad. This is the right time to advise the players to improve their standards in order to attract the top European teams.

In big clubs there is stiff competition for starting roles and joining such teams will bring out the best of our players.

For Nigeria to return to the top class in football its players must be among the ones calling the shots in the highly competitive European football.

Maybe the Eagles are being overrated. Since they play for lowly rated teams abroad, it will be difficult for Nigeria to present a team that will rule the world.

The young players warming up to take positions in the Eagles should think big to earn big.

Angola’s Manucho was signed by Manchester United from Petro Atletico of Luanda. This is why the Nigerian Football League should take the issue of facilities seriously. With good facilities and constant media coverage, the domestic league can attain a position to guarantee big overseas moves for our players. The NFL and NFA have a role to play in ensuring the development of the domestic league into a major player in the industry.

Club owners should also be interested in the growth of the league.

There should be deliberate efforts to get the age-grade team players sign for big teams because the country will reap from it in the future.

If this is achieved, one can be rest assured that at least four Nigerians will feature for teams in the Premier League on a Super Grand Slam Day.