Ikeme’ll keep Enyeama on his toes —Alloy Agu

SUPER Eagles goalkeeper trainer, Alloy Agu, has said that regardless of the five-star performances England-based Nigerian goalkeeper, Carl Ikeme put in the AFCON qualifier tie against Tanzania and friendly encounter against Niger in Port Harcourt, it would be very unfair to rate him ahead of his French-based counterpart, Vincent Enyeama, stat­ing that Enyeama remains Eagles first choice goal­keeper.
Answering questions from SportingSun on tele­phone yesterday, the Ni­gerian former goalkeeper, however, noted that his joy was that the performance had increased the level of competition in the Eagles goalkeeping department, insisting that Ikeme should rather be seen as a compet­itor, not a rival to Enyeama in Super Eagles team.
Agu, who started the chat with the justification of the invitation of four goalkeepers for the dou­ble-edged friendly against Cameroon and Togo said: “You know that the invi­tation of four goalkeep­ers was not only for one friendly game, but two of them. Don’t also forget that we are building a team.
“The invitation will give us the opportunity to look at them and make our choice. If we just invite only two or three of them, something can happen during training. We should equally remember that the CHAN engagement is tak­ing place almost the same week. We have to put all those things into consider­ation before arriving at in­viting four goalkeepers for the two friendly matches,” he defended.
Then asked if Ikeme’s performance had made him a rival to Enyeama, Agu replied: “Enyeama and Ikeme are not rivals, but rather competitors. We should rather look at it as a good thing for the country to have wonderful goal­keepers in the Eagles line-up, which will bring more competition that will in turn bring excellent game performance.
“At this point, we are not looking at rivalry, but a competitive build up process. We thank God Ikeme did well in the two outings, but we should not forget that Vincent Enyeama has been a sol­id hand for the country, which none of us can dis­pute.
“However, it is also good to have another per­son who can also do well. It brings out the beauty of the game and the compe­tition in the goalkeeping department. It is not about rivalry, but an opportunity for everyone to showcase what he has and ensure that Nigeria gets the very best hands,” he said.
On whether selection will now be based on com­petition or whether En­yeama still remains num­ber one, the Eagles trainer said: “Honestly speaking, Enyeama is still number one goalkeeper and there is no dispute about it.