THE AFRICAN NATIONS CUP, AND HOW IT WILL EFFECT US!!

Saw a lot of our fellow Villains stressing about it on twitter yesterday so I thought I'd do a bit of digging to see what the deal is.

Firstly the list of African internationals on our books

Ayew= Ghana
Adomah= Ghana
Gestede= Benin
Kodjia= Ivory Coast

(Tshibola could also qualify to play for an African nation but that's probably unlikely as we stand)


So out of those names only Ayew, Adomah and Kodjia will be able to play in the African Nations Cup because Gestede's Benin failed to qualify.

How we will be effected

The African Nations Cup begins on January 14th and ends on February 5th as stated HERE.

These are the games we have between now and January 2nd

Birmingham away on Oct 30th
Blackburn at home on Nov 5th
Brighton away on Nov 18th
Cardiff at home on Nov 26th
Leeds away on Dec 3rd
Wigan at home on Dec 10th
Norwich away on Dec 13th
QPR away on Dec 18th
Burton at home on Dec 26th
Leeds at home on Dec 29th
Cardiff away on Jan 2nd

There will also be an FA cup game around January 7-9 too. But I'd doubt they'd hang around for that tbh.

Now the league games they would potentially miss

Wolves away on Jan 14th
Preston at home on Jan 21st
Bristol City at home on Jan 28th
Brentford away on Jan 31st
Nottingham Forest away Feb 4th

The next league game after this is then seven days later on February 11th so the boys should be back and running on time to get involved against Ipswich at home if needed. Of course they could potentially come home sooner if Ghana and Ivory Coast don't progress to the later rounds aswell too.


Conclusion

The likely-hood is we'll only be missing Ayew and Kodjia tbh as Adomah hasn't really figured much for Ghana in recent times. They will be a massive miss but the blessing is we've got Mccormack and Gestede already on the books and the first game after they go is FOURTEEN days into the transfer window so hopefully we'll have done some wheeling and dealing before we face Wolves away. Another bonus is this doesn't come at a time when we'll be playing potential promotion rivals like Newcastle, Norwich, Brighton etc...so all in all I can't have any complaints about this.

You could argue that Bruce is currently without his captain, and creative talent of grealish. Big misses though they will be - the fixture list is reasonably kind , and I reckon brucey will just get on with it.
My opinion is that we cant have grealish and ayew in the same starting 11. They both have talent, and worry the opposition - but the final ball , end product and missed chances from them for me its one or the other...

smetro wrote:You could argue that Bruce is currently without his captain, and creative talent of grealish. Big misses though they will be - the fixture list is reasonably kind , and I reckon brucey will just get on with it.
My opinion is that we cant have grealish and ayew in the same starting 11. They both have talent, and worry the opposition - but the final ball , end product and missed chances from them for me its one or the other...

Well as everyone knows I don't think we've missed Elphick at all and imo he's been the main cause of the nervousness the defence have had towards the end of the games this season. As for Grealish and Ayew. Well for me it's just a matter of whether Grealish can adapt his game. He's spent a lot of his career playing on the left-hand side, but if he gets the "number ten" role and stays more central with Ayew on the left and Adomah on the right then I see no reason why it couldn't work. It's very much in Grealish's hands, can he perform in that role? If he can't then he'll need to be a sub because I believe Ayew offers more right now.

Of those 5 teams we play, how many of them will be missing players of their own?

Trotters wrote:Of those 5 teams we play, how many of them will be missing players of their own?

Good question

Wolves

Carl Ikeme= Nigeria
Romain Saiss= Morocco
Nouha Dicko= Mali


Preston North End

None


Bristol City

None


Brentford

None


Nottingham Forest

Armand Traore= Senegal
Britt Assombalonga (qualifies for DR Congo but has yet to play for them)


So all in all Wolves are the only team who would be effected really and just like us they'll have time to do a few deals by the time we play them on Jan 14th.

Isn't there a strong rumour that we're going for Jordan Rhodes as well, come January, or did I dream that (I might well have). That might help in the missing striker department. Plus we've just no idea who will be with us by then. Whatever does happen though, Kodjia will be a big miss - how the fuck Ayew got voted Championship player of the week and Kodjia not even in the team is beyond me - I know that these things are bollocks anyway, but Kodjia has - for me - contributed more in the last week than Ayew. I'll probably say more about this in the Fulham match thread, but I still think Ayew is petulant and a bit too lazy at times, but, he can also deliver, so I generally have mixed feelings about him - he can change matches, but I wish he'd apply himself more.

Who's gonna be first to mention the G-word as the solution to our ANC problem?

Won't affect us. Gestede and McCormack are more than good enough, Audrey Hepburn-Murphy as cover. I'd rather not even waste time in the transfer window by signing another striker when we can target midfielders and wingers

Trotters wrote:Who's  gonna be first to mention the G-word as the solution to our ANC problem?

Good idea @Trotters Keep Kodjia and send another 'player' instead? let's tell Ivory Coast that Kodjia has let himself go a bit over Xmas and forgotten how to speak French? That is about the only way I can see a certain Mr Villa helping us out during the ANC?

Nothing can stop us now, fvck it, lets get some more Africans!