African Nations Cup

I clearly said up to 10 of our players are ELIGIBLE to play at AFCON and that is a fact, also with Covid it is just possible that some of those youngsters could get a call though I admit it is very unlikely, but we might need to call them up to the 1st team squad with the AFCON absentees, also if our injury list does not improve and of course Covid could linger around our squad.

Therefore I don't get why people are getting upset about what I said

 

I’m eligible to play for England at the next World Cup, I’ll make sure my work knows to plan ahead.

 

I suppose it’s because the eligibility of our U18/23’s is completely irrelevant if there isn’t a chance they’ll be called up. It’s pointless bringing them into the discussion.

 

Is this going ahead then?

 

Paul Onuacho (Nigeria striker) injured and ruled out of afcon. Everything pointing to Dennis getting called up sadly.

 

Absolutely not. But he's got a fortnight booked in Cameroon and tickets to every match so looks like he's written off too.

 

At least there is no chance that we will play Ekong when he goes to Africa.

 

Sarr named in the Senegal squad, Leventhal says he's not back until February though.

 

That's not good to hear.

 

No big deal. Either way, he’ll not be playing for us until the end of AFCON regardless of what happens.

 

What happens if Sarr becomes fit again once the Afcon is already a week underway?

They surely can't expect him to travel and join in once the tournament has already well begun?!

 

I guess if he's named in the squad they can. Would be unprecedented though... at least I can't think of any examples.

 

Surely they’d take him out there with the squad initially in that case?

 

I'm sure this will have been said before but I really believe bringing the AFCON home could be our best chance of silverware in a generation.

 

Agreed, at best we're a midtable prem club punching above our weight, we should really show some respect to this competition and send our best players

Would be amazing to see us win some silerware in my lifetime

 

According to the Athletic, Senegal coach confirms he's called up Sarr with a view to him playing in the Quarter Finals onwards. Which is last couple of days in Jan.

 

Senegal's manager sounds like a real joker. He wants Sarr to continue his rehab with us and then fly out for the Quarter Finals. What could go wrong with Sarr being rushed back from injury to go and play on pitches with more holes than no man's land?

 

Can we do anything about that? Can we say he's still injured and refuse to release him?

 

What a tw@.

 

Of course, but it would also then prevent us from being able to play him, even when in reality he's fit.

All this would probably only result in is us pretending he's not fit until whenever Senegal get knocked out of the tournament, even when he's fine to be in full training with us, just to prevent him having to journey there and back and potentially get injured again while there, while also ensuring that he's available to play for us asap without the faff of flights back, jet-lag etc.

I.e. by calling him up when we're unlikely to release him, the Senegal manager is likely just ensuring that no one gets to play him.

 

As I understand it, under FIFA rules federations can call up players whether they're injured or not, and expect them to physically attend for examinations by their own medical staff if they really want. Obviously we can share scans/medical reports etc but ultimately it's up to Senegal's own medical staff to excuse him.

Plus @lowerrous is right about why that still wouldn't necessarily help us.

 

There's rumours that one of our postponed games, possibly Palace, will be rearranged to early January after the Spurs match (4th or 5th), and another, possibly Wolves, rearranged to mid Jan after the Newcastle one (18th or 19th) - in which case that would be 4 potentially huge games in total without Sarr and Dennis (inuding perhaps Norwich on the 21st).

 

I don’t like the idea of Sarr going there under the terms laid out by the manager anymore than anyone else…

But playing devils advocate, he’s easily one of their best players and talismen.

I’m sure if Harry Kane was injured, any England fan would want him to still be in the squad if he could play the knockout phases onwards.

It’s not so much the coaches attitude to this, is the timing of the tournament. If It was in the summer, we wouldn’t have nearly as much issue with it in my opinion.

 

Ideal opportunity to use this gif:

 

League 1 sides have international breaks because of a few loan players playing u-21's.

Seems odd that despite us being obliged by FIFA to release players for this, the league doesn't allow teams to postpone games as a result.

I also have no idea why this Tournament can't be arranged to be played in the summer like all other competitions. I'm no meteorologist but I'm guessing it's farkin' hot in Cameroon all year round

 

And all these games are what are commonly known as SIX POINTERS just our luck

 

Like the World Cup, you mean?

 

That's a one off that nobody wanted, except FIFA who insisted in holding it in the desert

The African Cup of Nations is always held slap bang in the middle of the season for no apparent reason.

 

African fans want to see their EPL heroes in season.
Scoring for Liverpool one week, ‘here’ in Africa the next.
That’s the reason.