Big West Ham AFCON disruption claims could be a complete red herring ahead of the tournament in Ivory Coast next month.
The African Cup of Nations will see West Ham lose arguably their best player for an extended spell in the shape of Mohammed Kudus.
And Moroccan centre-back Nayef Aguerd will also leave a sizeable hole in the West Ham team despite his inconsistent performance levels.
But the tournament’s potential impact on David Moyes’ already patchy Hammers squad has been somewhat exaggerated in some quarters.
Big West Ham AFCON disruption claims
Clubs are usually required to release players participating in AFCON at least a week prior to the tournament starting on January 13th.
And the tournament does not finish until five weeks later on February 11th.
Most players involved are also given a few days rest after their involvement before returning to club duty – although that will be between West Ham boss Moyes and his players to agree upon.
Ghana will be one of the favourites to go deep into the tournament.
And that means Kudus will likely miss up to six games starting with West Ham’s FA Cup third round tie against Bristol City on January 7th.
He will then likely miss Premier League games against Sheffield United, Bournemouth, Manchester United, Arsenal and possibly Nottingham Forest depending on how far Ghana go and how much – if any – leave West Ham give him afterwards.
Benrahma and Cornet looking unlikely to be selected
Aguerd’s Morocco will be among one of the favourites too after their World Cup heroics.
But big West Ham AFCON disruption claims could be a complete red herring.
Because reporting that West Ham will also be without Said Benrahma and Maxwel Cornet is somewhat poorly researched.
Yes it is a possibility they will be selected by Algeria and Ivory Coast. Especially as managers can take 27-man squads. But at the moment it is looking highly unlikely.
Not only because neither is barely getting a kick for West Ham this season.
But Benrahma and Cornet were both snubbed for the last international squads before the tournament.
And in Cornet’s case he was not selected for Ivory Coast for the October or November squads.
In Benrahma’s case, when he did play for Algeria in October he had an almighty falling out with the manager and his teammates. And he was physically confronted by boss Djamel Belmadi which made big headlines at the time.
Since then he was ignored for the last meet-up before AFCON in November. And it has now emerged Belmadi is preferring to take Youcef Belaili to the tournament over the West Ham man.
That will be good news for West Ham.
Both in terms of having the players available and making them more attractive for prospective buyers should the Hammers look to sell either or both in January – as has been rumoured.
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