ACON January 2023

Lukerz

Little question about league integrity given every other club has had their contingent of AFCON & Asia Cup players, yet we haven’t, in the same gameweek…

claretandbluesky

I would have thought there we rules for tournaments such as 1 week before tournament begins and so Houghton's not wanting him to get injured wouldn't apply as he either has a right to him on a set date or not.

In my view International football is a side show now and shouldn't have such priority. A nice festival of football but its club football that matters. It needs rethinking and the world cup having more teams was rethinking in the wrong direction in my view.

World Cup every four years (pre qualifying knock out comp 10 days before commencement)

Euros & Afcon the same taking place in the middle of a world cup cycle.

No international breaks ensuring two genuine 10 day rest breaks within the season in October and February.

ASLEFshrugged

Kudas in the squad

buffybegood

claretandbluesky said:

I would have thought there we rules for tournaments such as 1 week before tournament begins and so Houghton's not wanting him to get injured wouldn't apply as he either has a right to him on a set date or not.

There are rules set in place, unfortunately the cut-off date for AFCON is today. We asked for permission for him to play, which is not unreasonable given our game was moved for TV and Ghana's first game isn't until 14th Jan, but it seems that has been denied.

buffybegood

I do feel it's unnecessary for the AFCON to be every 2 years. The World Cup is on a 4 year cycle, with the Euros on a 4 year cycle in between. Given that no players/countries will play in both the Euros and the AFCON, it makes sense for the AFCON to switch to every 4 years and play in the same year as the Euros.

There's lots of talk about player welfare, and the increasing number of games (I blame that idiot Infantino at Fifa for a lot of it, increasing the size of the World Cup, hugely increasing the size of the Club World Cup going forwards), so why not do something to bring things more in line?

Work a calendar on a 4 year cycle, have set dates for World Cup, Euros and AFCON/Asia Cup, build the calendar so that European countries have international breaks that combine with a winter break to coincide with the AFCON dates eg why do we need international breaks in September, October and November; bin the October one and play it in January, bring the March one forward and play it in February, stick a winter break in between and you've more or less covered the AFCON break. At the end of the season when the Euros are on, the players who played in the AFCON have a longer summer break.

I know that's a very simplistic approach, but with more thought the calendar could work much more efficiently for both clubs and countries and, more importantly, for players.

buffybegood

buffybegood said:

True, but in this instance it's only 4 clubs that are potentially being negatively affected, the other 16 all had their AFCON players available to play in this round of fixtures. It will be interesting to see if Egypt let Salah play this evening.

Typically Egypt have let Salah play so Liverpool haven't been inconvenienced for this round of fixtures.

ASLEFshrugged

I have read various reports that Ghana's recent performances have been poor

In October friendlies they lost 4-0 against USA and 2-0 against Mexico then in November World Cup qualifiers they struggled to beat Madagascar 1-0 at home, scoring in the 96th minute, but lost 1-0 away at Comoros

Comoros consists of three islands between Madagascar and Mozambique with a population of 850k, about the same as Redbridge, Havering and Barking & Dagenham combined,

On Monday they drew 0-0 with Namibia in a friendly (Kudus was missing but reported back in training Wednesday)

If they go out at the group stage Kudus could be back for the FA Cup 4th round

thornburyiron

Let’s hope we are back for the 4th round.

buffybegood

Kudus left out of Ghana's matchday squad this evening. Ghana's group might be more open than it appeared on paper; Eqypt, the highest ranked of the 4 teams, only just managed a draw against lowest ranked Mozambique thanks to an injury time penalty.

Lukerz

Ghana also losing 0-1

buffybegood

It's all a double edged sword; if Ghana lose it's possible Kudus will be back sooner (although, as it will be in the next World Cup, two thirds of the teams in the group stages qualify for the knockout stages, ridiculous imo), but equally it's possible that he'll be rushed back too soon from his injury because they'll be bottom of the group.

steve

Am I right that this was surpose To be Ghana easy game of the group

buffybegood

Ghana are ranked 2nd in the group, and Cape Verdi 3rd.

thornburyiron

Ghana concede in stoppage time and lose 1-2

claretandbluesky

Reports on Twitter that Houghton was attacked back at the hotel by a fan and was saved by two diplomats and is fine.

I guess people will be quick to put two and two together and presume it was due to the dismal performance in the first opening group fixture. However I am not sure you can completely rule out the fact that it was due to the fact he once played forTottenham!

IronHerb

That's not funny.

claretandbluesky

IronHerb said:

That's not funny.

Thanks for letting me know!

ASLEFshrugged

Standard reports that Kudus returned to training on Monday

buffybegood

Ghana's next match is against Eqypt tomorrow evening.

claretandbluesky

Egypt would be considered the hardest match for Ghana and hopefully if losing to Egypt we may stand a chance of Kudus returning early, of course the further down the group they finish, even if making the knockout stages, they will have a tougher match to come.

MIAHammer

ASLEFshrugged said:

I have read various reports that Ghana's recent performances have been poor

If they go out at the group stage Kudus could be back for the FA Cup 4th round

That didn't age well

buffybegood

Kudus starts for Ghana tonight against Egypt; I so hope he comes through unscathed and hasn't been rushed back from injury after Ghana's defeat in the first match.

buffybegood

Kudus scores a cracker minutes after Salah goes off injured. Ghana lead 1-0 just before half time.

thornburyiron

Bit of Deja Vu with the equaliser though. Then Kudus does it again straight away.

buffybegood

And now Eqypt score again to make it 2-2.

Bazshuayi

That adds another 15-20M on Kudus's worth...

steve

Why are we looking to sell him

claretandbluesky

I doubt he would be sold because we were looking to sell him, same goes for Paquetta. They will get offered a bigger club and maybe put pressure on to leave. I don't think Kudus is there yet but Paquetta will certainly be getting offers once this betting thing is settled. There are not many Rice types who say they are not signing a new one but happy to play under the original contract. Most nowadays know they can orchestrate a move should they want to.

buffybegood

I'm sure the deal with Brighton for Kudus in the summer fell through over a release clause, so he could well have one in his contract with us. Either way, I've always had the impression that he sees us very much as a stepping stone; whether that would mean he goes this summer or next I think may depend on the terms of any release clause and his form in the second half of the season. If he carries on as he has done so far, there could easily be bids around £100m for him which, if he's keen to move, might prove difficult to refuse given the large number of players currently contributing nothing that will need replacing in the summer.

steve

But after we win the Europa League .And get into the champions League .Why would anyone want to leave