Kano Pillars must finally replace the goals of Junior Lokosa and start the process of planning for life after old war horse Rabiu Ali as they plan their recruitment ahead of the 2020-21 football season, Pillars boss Ibrahim Musa has said.

Pillars will combine their domestic campaign in the 2020-21 Nigeria Professional Football League with an outing on the continent in the CAF Confederation Cup and Musa says a reinforcement of the spine of the team is needed to ensure they reach their goals.

While he believes the club needs new players in “all the departments” the Kano native stresses a proven goal scorer to spearhead his side’s attack is a necessity.

The Sai Masu Gida have struggled to adequately replace goal machine Junior Lokosa who left in 2018 after scoring 19 times in 24 games before the 2017-18 season was truncated.

Despite signing former FC Ifeanyiubah captain Chijioke Alaekwe and retaining the services of burly striker Nyima Nwagua and Al Hassan Ibrahim, Pillars have found goals difficult to come by and last season, the club didn’t score in their opening four games.

The problem according to Musa, is a lack of clinical edge among his current striking options which can only be solved by the purchase of “a perfect striker” to finally fill Lokosa’s boots.

Similarly, Musa says the club must start preparing for life after the rapidly ageing midfield mainstay Rabiu Ali, a totemic figure whose part of the Pillars fabric.

Ali, Pillars’ captain and best player is will be 40-years-old in a few weeks and while he appears to show no signs of slowing down, Musa recognises that the midfielder can’t continue forever and says the club must groom a replacement good enough to share the creative burden with Ali and eventually replace him when he inevitably calls it quits.

“[We need to sign players in all the departments especially goalkeeping. So, we need a central defender, central midfielder, central attack[er],” Musa told busybuddiesng.com. “That’s all the areas we will need.

“You know Rabiu is one of the best players in Nigeria, so we need somebody who can replace Rabiu easily. So that is why we need a central midfielder.

“In central attack, since we lost [Junior] Lokosa, up till we’ve not had the best, so that is why we need to get someone who can finish. We have attackers but our problem is finishing, so that is why we still need a perfect striker, to join with the ones we have like [Nyima] Nwagua, [Chijioke] Alaekwe and others.”