I knew an English coach who came to coach in Africa. The truth is the team was great at practice but on match days played to the crowds and never kept the team tactics. No African side will ever lift the World Cup. Being able to lift a team mentally and win consecutive games is not something that I believe they could do. It is similar to the French National rugby team as they have everything but they don't have the mentality for it.
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Given that we see plenty of African footballers winning trophies at club level in European football I’d have to disagree.
Winning mentality is important in the short to medium term but i don’t believe it is the be all and all and never subject to change. After all you’re talking to Spurs supporter. If winning mentality never changed we’d have been a successful club for the past 60 years rather than getting beat by Sheffield United!
I think it is more down to how they play the football locally. Individually they are capable but as a team is where the problem lies. If you watched local football on television here it is like they are all playing for themselves. The ones that make it playing in Europe have learnt the art of playing in a team yet somehow it never filters back here. Coaches pull their hair out as nothing from the training pitch seems to make it's way to match days.
I guess that kind of talent drain is a large part of the reason too. If the best players are continually creamed off the top then it's difficult to sustain any development.
To some extent I wonder if it is the mentality of wanting to get out of the local footballing system that makes those players more selfish and concerned with their individual performance than that of the team.