Nigeria U23 coach Samson Siasia is ready to battle 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 said.
“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.
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