SO much for the striker’s union sticking together. “I reckon that’s the worst miss I’ve ever seen,” sniggered Alan Shearer after Yakubu managed to sidefoot wide of South Korea’s gaping, open goal from inside the six-yard box this week.

Retired referee Bolaji Okubule was more colourful.

Nigerian newspaper ‘The Daily Sun’ ended an interview with the striker on Thursday with the following splendid sentence: “Retired FIFA badged referee, Bolaji Okubule, who was totally pissed off with the miss, told Daily Sunsports that his wife would have scored in that situation.”

No matter how badly you rated the miss – and it was a shocker – it opened up a debate once again about the Nigerian’s merits, or otherwise, to Everton football club.

The striker has been widely linked with a move to West Ham this summer, and the Toffeeweb site asked last week ‘Should David Moyes be looking to keep Yakubu?’

Fans are split.

From a total of 3,291 respondents, 52 per cent said: “Yes, scores goals for fun when fully fit”, while 48 per cent replied: “No, not the same player since his long lay-off.”

The question is largely immaterial, because David Moyes has made it clear that he wants to keep the 27-year-old at Goodison.

And Yakubu himself suggested in the wake of his South African howler last week that he wants to stick around.

Speaking like a man from a Pathe news clip, Yakubu said: “I must confess that I feel disappointed in myself for not scoring when I had only the net to beat in the game against Korea.