Former Nigeria international Finidi George has told national team coach Stephen Keshi to not be overly excited by the recent form of strikers Yakubu Ayegbeni and John Utaka as he seeks to rebuild the national team.
Keshi has expressed delight at the scoring prowess of Yakubu at Blackburn Rovers and Utaka at Montpellier and has hinted at recalling them into the national team if they keep up their performances. Both Utaka and Yakubu are 29-years-old.
“The coach must invite players on current form if we must qualify for any major tournament in the coming year but he mustn’t rely on Utaka and Ayegbeni alone to turn the fortunes of the team around,” Finidi told Complete Sports.
“I don’t think we should give up on young players coming up in the team. Why must our own country be different when other countries are turning to youths and getting results and we believe Utaka and Yakubu can revamp the national team?”
Both players were frozen out of the national team since the country’s disastrous showing at the 2010 World Cup but have insisted that they still have a part to play.