His antecedents in the past year or two have shown that Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi is not afraid to wield the axe where necessary.
But when his final 23-man squad for the World Cup was announced late on Monday, there were many -- yours truly included -- who were left blind-sided.
For starters, Sunday Mba has been a Keshi mainstay almost from the beginning while he was still in the domestic league, racking up games with the B-side before his break-out at the African Nations Cup. He not only scored the goal that eliminated favourites Ivory Coast but also scored the championship-winning goal. Nnamdi Oduamadi was also one of Keshi's early picks, being in the squad for his first two matches as coach, against Botswana and then Zambia.
And Ejike Uzoenyi showed he had improved considerably, if still not completely, from his previous rudderless style. When he claimed MVP honours at the African Nations Championship early this year, he looked a good bet for the World Cup.
His lively showing against Scotland just a week ago also seemed to have cemented his place in the final 23.
But Keshi had other ideas.
It is never easy for a coach to cut players from his squad. Especially not when the culled personnel will be standing in front of you as you drop the bombshell. Keshi was certainly in a very difficult place at PPL Park on Monday. He had to be ruthless, and so he was. Mba failed to report to camp on time -- an expired visa being the reason -- and his tardiness cost him a place in Brazil.
Many Nigerians were left unhappy by his exclusion and that is a very nice way to put it. It was a little less straightforward for Uzoenyi. Keshi had to make a tough choice between the X-factor of the Rangers man and the additional industry of Babatunde Michael. In the end, he went with the latter. As for Oduamadi, there were much better options ahead of him and the coach chose to go with those rather than be swayed by emotion.
That is not to say Keshi does not sometimes fall prey to his soft spot; there will be many who will say that his Gabriel Reuben pick was influenced by emotion. It will be hard to dispute.
The midfielder has barely played all season and was out injured for months but he finds himself selected ahead of Nosa Igiebor, who only missed games in Spain due to injury and looked near back to his best against Scotland's Tartan Army. Plenty of heads will be scratched at that Reuben pick.
"You can't bring emotions into this, you can't bring sentiments. You got to be pure and realistic and do what you got to do," Keshi told me on Monday.
He showed he can be realistic. He also showed he can be just a tiny bit sentimental.
But as long as the team he has picked gets the job done, few will mind.