West Ham United's record £20.5m signing from Swansea City, Andre Ayew, is hoping to return to action either by the end of November or early in December, and according to Ghanaian media sources has his mind firmly set on taking part in the African Cup of nations tournament to be held in Gabon between the 14th of January and the 5th of February 2017. Whilst it is obviously great news that the 26 year old attacking midfielder/striker is recovering from the injury he sustained 35 minutes in to his Hammers debut against Chelsea, the timing will leave very little opportunity for fans to see him, if at all, in the claret and blue before he jets off to the competition. the 'bean counters' at West Ham must be apoplectic with regard to the expenditure versus return balance sheet. First they had the Andy Carroll saga to deal with, now this! As if to rub salt in the wounds, Sofiane Feghouli, Cheikhou Kouyate and Diafra Sakho could all be going as well, with International managers likely to want players at least a week or two beforehand for training, West Ham will be 'bare boned' for up to SIX weeks!
Feghouli is likely to play for Algeria, and Ayew set to skipper his home nation of Ghana. Kouyate and Sakho will feature for Senegal. Other Barclays Premier League teams have players going to the African Cup of Nations, but Hammers are one of those clubs that are more deeply affected. It is hoped that 'issues' with the various medical teams don't follow a similar path to that which saw Diafra Sakho virtually crippled whilst on the Senegalese treatment table, in fact 'Sakman' has never been the same since!
How Hammers will cope with the loss of the players, particularly Cheik Kayoute, is hard to predict, but there is strength in depth in the squad and also a few fringe players in addition to some promising youngsters who would like nothing better than to be given a chance to shine in the first team, well there time will come! - Ed
Comments
I can't see
for the life of me why you would purchase a player that could spend SIX weeks out of the season away playing for his country, OK one or two but 4 or 5, come on.
La Vida Hammer ..
Well said .. So if some of these Players are away for say 3/6wks who actually Pays their Wages during that period out of interest ?
If he plays the AFCON, he
If he plays the AFCON, he better come back fit and willing to play with the team is all I can say. Might be harsh but when players are miraculously unable to play for the clubs who pay their wages and pay over the hill in transfer fees yet go on to perform at internationals, a line has ti be drawn. If you are on sick pay at work, dont you get a third of your pay after a certain amount of time? They should do the same with footballers! Kouyate is going to be a big miss for us when he goes
No doubt Kouyate will be
No doubt Kouyate will be missed. But I think that once Feghouli and Payet link up we could feel the impact of losing him as well. Anyone know whether Sakho is back to full fitness? He really needs to make his position very clear as to whether he wants to battle to get back in the starting lineup.