December 29, (THEWILL) – It is no longer news that there is growing apprehension in managers of European teams afraid of the prospects of being without their African superstars, who have been called up by their countries to represent their chase of continental glory in next month’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
These managers cannot see how the fortunes of their clubs will not suffer a downturn given the importance these footballers of African origin play as the football season gets into crunch time.
Many of them, such as Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel, will be without key players such as Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Edouard Mendy and Guinea’s Naby Keita. This comes at a time when they are playing catch-up against Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, forcing them into making contingency plans.
But, some managers are turning to tricks and cunning to wriggle free of having to allow invited African players link up with their countries to feature at the TotalEnergies AFCON 2021 in Cameroon.
The initial antics of Napoli’s Luciano Spalletti, in trying to use Victor Osimhen’s face surgery as a ruse to keep the forward from joining the AFCON squad, failed with the 22-year-old publicly declaring himself fit just before his name was included in the squad list.
The latest attempt of Watford’s Claudio Ranieri is just as likely to fail too. The Italian manager is doing his utmost to ensure that Nigerian striker Emmanuel Dennis remains in the team rather than honour the invitation to the AFCON tournament.
Since joining Watford from Club Brugge, the Nigerian has proved to be a sensational addition to the squad and Ranieri cannot dare to imagine a situation where they will be without the vital contributions of their most valuable player and the club’s current highest goal scorer. That the club presently hovers just above the drop zone on 13 points, and Burnley immediately below them on 11 points but with several games in hand, makes it even tougher.
Therefore, it becomes understandable that Ranieri will be clutching at straws in his determined bid to retain his star player. After Dennis scored another beautiful goal in their latest loss to West Ham, the manager made comments implying that Dennis could stay at Watford during next month’s AFCON.
THEWILL recalls that Nigeria’s pre-tournament camp will begin on December 29, but Premier League players are unlikely to arrive until January 3. With that in mind, it appeared likely that Dennis, who will join his compatriots in the Super Eagles’ squad, will miss a significant portion of Watford’s fixtures for January and possibly some of February – especially since the tournament ends on February 6.
Ranieri was asked how much the expected absence of his key player from the Watford’s team selection would impact their chances of survival in the coming weeks and the Italian manager began exhibiting some of the thinking behind trying to retain Dennis.
“I’m not so sure I will miss Dennis now. I don’t know if he goes to the national team. We have to wait. We have to wait.”
As surprising to hear as this was, the 70-year-old stressed the importance of waiting for additional information but appeared to imply that the lateness of the call-up, which he questionably referred to as a “pre-call”, was an issue.
“Look, I know, it’s not arrived at the right moment, we have to wait very well. The national team has time to send the pre-calls, they don’t respect the days.”
He then concluded: “The email arrived late to pre-call [Dennis]. Do you know what I mean? The national team has time, during this time, they have to send the pre-call. If they don’t send the pre-call, we can choose.”
It is obvious that it is not in his hands to determine, because FIFA refers to the national teams when there are conflicting interests where standard, legitimate and approved tournaments are involved. Any of these managers, trying to play a fast one because it is an African country involved, is only pushing their luck.
Should Ranieri go as far as to actively prevent Dennis from travelling to honour the invitation from Austin Eguavoen, it will be unfortunate as the NFF might have to step in and query the Watford manager’s authority with a direct appeal to FIFA. In fact, it must be done to set a precedent that will ensure no other managers elsewhere take it upon themselves to involve in such moves in the future.
It was negative enough that Klopp allowed his tongue slip in referring to AFCON as a little tournament, for which he is yet to honestly apologise, but these managers must begin to reckon with the fact that, as Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira put it, the AFCON is as big a competition for Africa as the Euros are for the UEFA region.
If it will take setting an example with Ranieri for this to happen, then so be it.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
