By KATE OBODO

Former Super Eagles midfielder, Friday Ekpo says he sees a bright future for the Eagles just as he believed Stephen Keshi’s building on the local players will bring a positive impact in the squad next year.

He told Saturday Vanguard Sports that Keshi’s aspiration ahead of the 2013 Nation’s Cup qualifiers and the 2014 World Cup campaign to have a formidable home-based team that will beef up the senior national team is a good step to prepare for the new year.

He stressed the need for Nigerians, especially the soccer loving ones, to exercise patience and support him to achieve his aim .

Home based Eagles celebrating after scoring

“I want to use this medium to urge Nigerians to forget the past and look into the future. Really we failed woefully in 2011, following the chains of poor results recorded by our national teams. But then, we have to move on and see how we will effect changes in the national teams.

He continued: “The fact remains that we have failed but with the way Keshi his going about the home-based players, I see future and hope in the squad. This is one of the problems we should be able to tackle instead of looking backward.

“The NFF on their own part need to have a firm programme on school sports which is the bed rock of all sports not only building on the local players. If our school programmes had been active, I do not think we would have had problems,” he said.