Let’s not sugar-coat it — West Ham’s upcoming fixture lists is about to get considerably more tricky.
While the Africa Cup of Nations is undoubtedly a proud moment for those involved, the timing could not be worse for the Hammers. Both of our regular full-backs — Aaron Wan-Bissaka (DR Congo) and El Hadji Malick Diouf (Senegal) — will be away on international duty. That leaves us short just when we can least afford it.
Wan-Bissaka has been working his way back to last years HOTY form — arguably one of the Premier League’s best right-backs last season. Obi-Wan Bissaka, as I like to call him, is a top level player who’ll be a big miss. His absence alone is bad enough, but losing Diouf too? That leave Kyle Walker Peters covering two positions.
The Senegalese youngster is a work in progress but has proper attacking intent — and he’s just had his best game in a couple of months against Brighton.
So where does that leave us? Scrambling. Either we shoehorn a centre-back into an unfamiliar full-back role or place our trust in Ollie Scarles who is not yet match fit.
West Ham aren’t the only team in trouble
Diouf won’t be available for West Ham
West Ham can take some comfort in the fact that all of our relegation rivals – with the exception of Leeds United – are also set to lose players.
Wolves, already set to lose four players, may look vulnerable too, but following this weeks loss to Man U look gone.
Burnley, Fulham and Forest have some AFCON absentees so it’s pretty much status quo as far as their concerned. The Cottagers are missing a couple of really big players in Calvin Bassey (Nigeria), Alex Iwobi (Nigeria) but they have a points buffer over the rest of us.
Ultimately, it’s a hindrance and will be interesting to see what Nuno Espirito Santo does but for now, we have just the Aston Villa game to enjoy AWB and Malick Diouf before potentially losing them for up to 5 weeks.
Every 2 years we have to go through the same conversations. It’s quite obvious that neither AFCON or Fifa aren’t going to do anything about scheduling or frequency of this tournament. It’s all very well saying “well you knew this before the player signed” but in some players case no we didn’t, especially for Wan Bissaka, he like a few others had previously pinned their hopes of playing for European national teams and have now reverted to African heritage nationality because they had minimal chance of making the grade for England or France etc..
Change this to a 4 year cycle and at least try to play it in our summertime. It’s hardly like other international tournaments avoid extreme heat. We’ve had World Cup matches in USA, Mexico where players have been melting on the pitch and will likely see it happen next summer too.
Not only that, Leeds play Palace and Sunderland who are the most affected by AFCON. Luck really does seem to be on Leeds’ side
Call up the cavalry Academy players.
Golambeckis/Mayers/Orford/Forbes (loan cancelled) even Potts can play c/bk role.
As suggested Julio plays defence or is he a bench warmer like Evans was?
Bringing in reinforcements is ok (maybe) but when do they play (other than injuries) after Afcon finishes?
Unlikely to entertain Potts playing c/b has become important in mid field.
I suspect Mayers was being blooded to cover left back if Scarles not fit. In KWP we have right back cover.
AFCON is biannual and it’s a pain in the backside for all clubs because of this. Right in the middle of the season in Europe. Every four years I would happily except. I’m sure many clubs think twice about signing African footballers because of this biannual competition. Needs to change as in my opinion it’s current form doesn’t promote African football but hinders players opportunities
What about Igor Julio at left back – is he not going to be sticking around?