Olympiakos of Athens are in London for a Match Day 2 of this season’s UEFA Champions League tie with Arsenal in which they are massive underdogs.
They come with a striker who has played in the Premier League, Nigeria’s AFCON 2013 winner and former West Brom Albion record signing, Brown Ideye.
Ideye though admitting they are underdogs thinks “it is football and anything is possible. Arsenal have already lost away (at Dinamo Zagreb in Match Day 1) and we could easily have had a draw with Bayern Munich.”
Ideye endured an unhappy time in the Midlands of England with the Albion but he does not see this match as a time to prove people wrong “I have no interest or plan to use this match to show anybody that I should still be in the EPL. I am only interested in giving my all in the match so that we leave the Emirates with at least a point. I want to be smiling when I am on that plane back to Athens and only the minimum of a point at the Emirates will guarantee that feeling”.
The Nigerian international seems to have found a home now and a manager who believes in him. “Before I signed the manager spoke with me and told me what he would like to do with me and how he would like me to play if I joined the club. What I love to do best is to play football and so this opportunity was good enough for me and I am also playing the Champions League”. Not for Ideye sitting on the bench for a Premier League side and collecting your salary then? “No. I just want to play football. People know me from watching me play so how can I start to justify being content with not playing?” he asks rhetorically.
