Victor Anichebe is backing Everton youngsters to impress

Anichebe, who is guaranteed an Olympic medal following Nigeria's progression to the final in Beijing yesterday, made his first team bow at 17-years-old.

And he was encouraged to see others get a similar chance despite the dire circumstances in which it came about.

"It was good to see the young boys involved even though we need new faces to come in - but the club will deal with that," said Anichebe.

"I have spoken to Yak, Vaughany and Lukas (and I saw some highlights on evertonTV.

"The guys did really well (against Blackburn) and we were unlucky to concede at such a late stage in the game.

"It's just nice to see the younger boys get a taste of being around the first team.

Anichebe could return to the Everton team for their next home game against Portsmouth as an Olympic gold medallist.

The striker is guaranteed at least a silver after Nigeria made it to the final by beating Belgium 4-1. Anichebe came on as a 54th minute substitute and set up his country's second goal and they will take on Argentina in the final on Saturday

following their 3-0 win over Brazil.

But being guilty of an awful open-goal miss during the win over Belgium couldn't temper Anichebe's celebrations.

He said: "It is a dream come true to reach the final of the Olympic games.

"We have good staff behind us to keep us focused and our country men are praying for us. So we are focused on making ourselves and our country proud.

"But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves.

"We still need to beat Argentina in the final so it will be tough.

The gold medal game will be a repeat of the 1996 final, which Nigeria won 3-2.

Meanwhile, Moyes is set to explore the possibility of signing Stephane Mbia from Rennes after the Cameroon midfielder declared his desire to move to Everton.

He is still awaiting an examination on a knee injury he picked up while representing his country in the Olympics, but a fee in the region of £3million could tempt Everton to push the deal though.

"I haven't changed my mind, I want to join Everton," Mbia, 23, said.

"We are still in contact. I hope now that Rennes will accept to enter into negotiations with this English club.

"I don't want to let this chance go by."

A 12-month loan deal for Juventus's former Chelsea midfielder Tiago is still in the pipeline, while hopes remain that a deal can also be done to secure Joao Moutinho.

Sporting Lisbon remain reluctant to sell or drop their £20m valuation, but Everton are buoyed by the Portuguese midfielder's apparent desire to play in the Premier League.