No automatic shirts for players that won AFCON – Keshi warns

Stephen Keshi has sent out a warning to Super Eagles players, stating clearly that there will be no room for complacency in the team and players who were part of the AFCON winning squad, would have to fight for their shirts.
The boss was speaking a his weekly parley with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, where he also revealed that the process of rebuilding the team, was still in progress.
“We still have some players that we have pencilled down for the next matches and we are monitoring their progress and later they will be invited to the team. Some of them had played for the team in the past. At least you can see that some of my reliable players are not here,” he said.
Keshi also explained why skipper of the team, Joseph Yobo was dropped and insisted that the Fenerbache defender is still the captain of the Super Eagles.
“To start with my captain, Joseph Yobo is not here and that doesn’t mean that he is out of the team because he still retains his position as the captain of this team. Yes he has declared that he resigned from playing in the next Africa Cup of Nations but he’s still in my program for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers,” he said.

“Also injury cost Emmanuel Emenike from being here for the Kenya match. So we have our programs for the World Cup qualifiers.
The former coach of Mali, also made it clear that he was ready to give new players a chance to prove themselves in the national team.
Keshi said: “That is why I said the rebuilding exercise still continues in a way even after winning the Nations Cup. If we didn’t give players like Sunday Mba, Godfrey Oboabona and the rest the chance to prove themselves in the team, they couldn’t have excelled at the last Afcon.
“So what we are saying is that we are still going to look at a few players per time to see what they can do to make the team stronger and better than it is presently.”