A former Nigeria Football Federation vice chairman, Gen. Gregory Adebiyi, has advised Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, to use only established players to prosecute AFCON 2017 qualifiers. The retired army officer who was also a one-time chairman of the technical committee of the football house argued that the business of AFCON 2017 qualifiers was too serious to be a subject of experimentation.
Since his first appointment in 2011, Keshi had shown an inclination to give home-based players a chance in the Eagles set-up and in the last AFCON 2017 qualifier against Chad, the “Big Boss’ initially invited eight home-based players albeit settling for only Gbolahan Salami in his final squad.
And the Warri Wolves striker justified his selection by scoring the first goal in the laboured two-nil win against the Chadians. But Adebiyi is not overly impressed, insisting that Keshi must use the established players at all times. “I believe strongly that we should use the established players to prosecute the AFCON qualifiers, this is not the time to experiment.
We still recall with pain the last misadventure during the campaign for the 2015 edition. We obviously toyed with the first game especially and paid for it. “It is becoming something of a cliché now that there are no minnows anymore in football, but it is something that can’t be dismissed; so we must put our best foot forward at all times whether against Tanzania or Chad,” counseled Adebiyi, who was camp commandant of the Super Eagles at the1998 World in France.
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