Former Harambee Stars striker Peter Dawo has stated the greatness of Francis Kimanzi's team will be judged after playing more games.
Since taking over, Kimanzi has overseen two friendly matches against Uganda and Mozambique where they drew against the former and were beaten by the latter with both matches being played in Nairobi.
In the last two Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers Kenya drew 1-1 against both Egypt and Togo. The draws against the Pharaohs and the Cranes specifically led to a raging debate whether Kenyans are about to witness one of the greatest teams in history but Dawo warns it is not time to entertain such thinking.
“We need time to believe that ‘yes this is going to be a very good team for the future’. We need to see them play more matches so we can satisfactorily say we are about to witness one of the greatest teams in history,” Dawo told Goal.
“We cannot judge them from one or two games. Time is needed to build a golden generation.”
The Gor Mahia great hailed Kimanzi's move to incorporate more local players in his squad since his appointment in August.
“The decision of giving local-based players chances in the national team is timely. During my time we had no player who was foreign-based and the team was doing well,” explained Dawo.
“There are a lot of local players who are very good but have not been given the opportunity to showcase their capabilities at national level.
“This is something good and it also encourages the other players to up their game and in the long run and the standard of our domestic games will improve incredibly.”
In the team that faced Togo, Joash Onyango, Lawrence Juma, and Samuel Olwande started in the match while Johnstone Omurwa, Daniel Sakari, Whyvonne Isuza, John Makwatta and Timothy Otieno were on the bench and represented the players doing their trade in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL).
“When you have about three-quarters of players being foreign-based in the national team this will have a negative impact on the local game definitely,” he concluded.
“Kimanzi is leading a good example in trusting a number of local players, a step that must be encouraged.”
