believes the Super Eagles lack the quality to be at the
2015 Africa Cup of Nations starting in Equatorial
Guinea on Saturday.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the tournament after
losing the tickets to South Africa and Congo in the last
qualifying round.
But Aiyegbeni, who last featured for Nigeria at the
2010 World Cup in South Africa where he infamously
missed a scoring chance against South Korea in one of
the group games, told our correspondent that the
faulty rebuilding process in the team cost Nigeria the
opportunity to defend the title they won in 2013.
"Nigeria didn't deserve to be at the Nations Cup
because we didn't get some things right during the
qualifiers. Other teams playing at the tournament
deserve to be there because they worked for it," the Al
Rayyan of Qatar striker said.
"I think the team is gradually taking shape again after
the misfortune of not qualifying for the 2015 Nations
Cup. They had their chance to win and qualify but they
couldn't, so they have to go back to the basics and
check what went wrong.
"These days, Nigeria believe in rebuilding the team
every year. In other countries, they still have the older
and experienced players. In Nigeria, if you play for
nine years, people think you're too old to be in the
team; they'd say you have been there for too long and
they need younger players, even though you play
regularly at your club. But we have to stop that
mentality if we must be consistent at the top.
"(Andrea) Pirlo is 35 and is still playing for Italy, he's
still one of the best players in the world. Ivory Coast
still have some of their more experienced players still
playing in their national team, even though they're
rebuilding the team. Same with England, where players
like (Steven) Gerard and (Frank) Lampard inspired the
younger ones in the team before they retired. You
can't just push the experienced players away like that
and expect to build a strong team overnight.
"It's not enough seeing a player score a goal at his club
in Europe and you think that's enough to earn him a
place in the Eagles. I don't even know some of the
players in the Eagles these days, they just bring
anybody from anywhere. But we have players who
feature regularly for their clubs in Europe and America
and were never called up to play. That's how bad
Nigerian football has become."
He said the major problem in the Eagles is the strikers'
inability to score during crucial games.
"We have to believe in our strikers in the national
team. Some strikers can score goals more easily than
others. Sometimes, it is more difficult to score goals in
the national teams than in the clubs," the former
Everton player said.
"Back then, when we had players like Jay Jay Okocha
and the rest of them, they created chances for any
striker to score easily. But at the moment, we don't
have any creative midfielder who can create such
chances. This is the reason the strikers are struggling
to score.
"You can't compare the current Eagles squad with the
one that had Finidi (George), (Tijani) Babangida and
(Sunday) Oliseh. That team remains the best Nigeria
ever had. The current team will continue to build
every day because it's difficult to get the right talent."
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