Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Lets Talk About Femi Orenuga

By Dick   Anderson  ::  29/10/2011   8 Comments (»Last) Being an Essex Boy, supporting Everton is not an easy thing. I don't have the money to travel to Goodison Park more then a couple of times a season. And away games were easier to get tickets for when the likes of Wimbledon, Charlton & Ipswich were in the top flight.

So nowdays, to quench my thirst for live football, I watch my local side Colchester United. Today's opponents were Notts County who just happened to have a young lad called Femi Orenuga in their ranks.

Femi Orenuga made headlines here in Essex back in 2008. Southend were playing Luton Town in the FA Cup and in the 93rd minute of the match the Shrimpers manager made a substition and the then 15-year-old Femi Orenuga became the youngest player ever to play for Southend.

Coming on in the 93rd minute meant Orenuga had very little time to impress, I dont know if he even touched the ball, but somehow it was enough to alert a certain David Moyes of his potential. And after just that one single 93rd minute appearance for Southend, Femi Orenuga was on his way to Everton.

In March 2009 Everton paid around £30,000 for the then 16-year-old Femi Orenuga. He signed a two-year academy scolarship and promptly went straight into the Everton Academy Under-18s team. At time of his signing, many talked about him as being a star of the future, a bit like everyone is now saying the same thing about George Green.

The following couple of years Femi Orenuga seemed to struggle to make an impact at Everton. Earlier this year, Femi Orenuga turned 18 and had not made the breakthrough to the Reserves ? let alone the first team. And more worrying for Orenuga was that the younger 17-year-old Ross Barkley had made the Everton first team and new superkids were arriving at the club, 15-year-old George Green. So it's fair to say that at 18 Orenuga was in danger of being forgotten at Everton.

Then last week Orenuga was thrown a lifeline by David Moyes and shipped off to Notts County on loan. Moyes clearly hoping a few games in Division 1 would help get Orenuga back on track. Orenuga was given the advice of play games, gain experience by David Moyes.

He made his debut for Notts County last weekend coming on in the 81st minute. By all accounts it was a fairly uneventful 10 minute cameo.

This brings me to today's game at Colchester United. I took my seat (already pissed off at Everton's loss to Man Utd) and heard Orenuga's name called as one of the Notts County substitutes.

The game began and was quite entertaining. I forgot about Orenuga until about the 25th minute when he appeared on the sidelines in front of me doing warmup exercises. My first impression was wow he's really short.

I did not see Orenuga again until the second half. By this time Colchester were leading 3-1 and with the game looking pretty much over a rather annoyed Martin Allen turned to the bench and told Orenuga to get ready.

Orenuga took to the field in the 72nd minute and I immediately began to watch him hoping for something impressive. Sadly though Orenuga did not touch the ball for the first 7 minutes. This was not really his fault because at the time Colchester were rampant and had now gone ahead 4-1.

Then a breakthrough, the ball was passed to Orenuga who took control of it and simply layed it off to his teammate Lee Hughes. Ok, not exactly Roy of the Rovers stuff but a touch none the less.

Then around the 80th minute Orenuga made his first real contribution. The ball was passed out to him on the right wing and Orenuga took control of it and belted off at quite amazing speed. I have to tell you, this lad is quick. Sadly Orenuga was so caught up watching his feet he didn't spot Colchester defender Ben Coker who simply stood his ground and tackled him.

A few minutes later, Orenuga again received the ball out wide right and again took off at 100 mph. And once again Orenuga was too concerned watching his feet and the ball which allowed Ben Coker to simply dispossess him of the ball.

By this time I was also noticing that Orenuga was doing very little in the way of defending. When Colchester had the ball in the Notts County half Orenuga and Lee Hughes remained motionless as their two attackers. My guess was Martin Allen had told Orenuga to remain in the Colchester half, probably hoping his blistering pace would work with a counter attack.

The remaining few minutes were largely dull with Orenuga looking isolated as Colchester dominated the play. There was one more attack by Orenuga and this time he took the ball, put his head down, took off at lighting speed and attempted to take on two Colchester players. He failed to get past the first of them and the words 'headless chicken' began to resonate in my mind.

The game ended 4-2 to Colchester and Orenuga left the field looking disappointed as you would expect.

It's difficult to be hard on the lad because he's still only 18 and that was only his 3rd proffesional appearance. There's a good chance he will learn as he gains experience and hopefully this loan spell will make him a better player in the long run.

Sadly though the facts are, in the 22 minutes I saw of him, he had three real contributions. Three times he took the ball, put his head down, ran off at 100 mph only to get tackled by the first defender he came up against.

He reminded me of Royston Drenthe only not as confident in his own ability. Another big problem for Orenuga is that I don't think I saw him chase for the ball even once. He just waited for the ball to come to him. At one point I even saw Orenuga standing hands-on-hips style and thought to myself "He's 18, why doesn't he just chase the damn ball?" He certainly doesn't have the work ethic Moyes demands from his players.

I really hope Orenuga improves at Notts County and returns a better player because his pace is exciting and if he has a bit of trickery up his sleeve he could be very useful.

Sadly though I fear he might be another highly tipped youngster who Moyes took a punt on. Kinda like Scott Spencer. If we are looking for a future Everton star, my money is on Ross Barkley or George Green.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed my little insight into Femi Orenuga.

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