he he's a player that should not be part of the Gana national team his time should have come Ghana they failed to qualify for afcon 2025 after drawing 1-1 with Angola Argentina fall 2-1 to Paraguay Brazil they dropped points for the sixth time in 11 Comon Bowl World Cup qualifying matches 1-1 against Venezuela and Honduras they upset Mexico the other night and now Mexico in trouble in conaf Nations League quarterfinal action like two coming up and that's going to be a big one for the Canadians guys Mike when you look at these results I mean
there's a number to pick from but which one really stands out to you it's got to be Ghana and I was going to go up until that Ganan match happened I was going to go with Paraguay Paraguay excuse me I sound like I'm from uh Kansas or St Louis Paraguay getting the upset over Argentina Diego Gomez really stole the show from lonel Messi and you know there's something there about Diego Gomez playing for Paraguay but it's got to be Ghana not qualifying for afcon n that is incredible this is a Ganan side that they've been
on the slide they've been in just a really bad way the last two afcons they've been one of the worst teams at afcon they're not unified the Federation is in a mess and when you talk about a dark dark period for a national team you talk about a dark dark chapter for a federation like the Ganan Federation Nigel this has to be the darkest of them all it is the darkest first time they haven't qualified since 2004 uh there has to be a clearing of the house process for me because it's inexcusable this is Ghana
they produce some of the top talented football players that we've seen talk about Michael Essen and right now kudus like there's so much talent there and for them not to qualify it's an absolute embarrassment it's just that simple is that result more on Ghana's shortcomings or more on the fact that we're just seeing African football as a whole the level raising lack of Direction shortcoming shortcomings from Ghana you know when you talk about Africa as the continent the North African sides have always done well we look about Morocco Algeria not as much recently Egypt but
for me you know um Ivory Coast Sagal they're probably I would say that the real standard bearers of African football right now and the smaller nations are starting to even go small Nations like cape verie are starting to do well now but for Ghana for me that is an embarrassment because they are a Powerhouse nation of African football and not to qualify is an absolute embarrassment I think it's not heeding the call of a wakeup call and so they got a massive wakeup call a couple Cy Cycles ago in the afcan Cup of Nations they
play comos and they get knocked out of the African Cup of Nations to a small nation like comos so then that should be a massive wakeup call to say we've got to get some of the old guard out get younger players who actually give a damn about this national team who give a damn about the Jersey who have that Pride who want to play and it's their time to shine there's still some players the Jordan IU of the world Jordan IOU has been part of that national team I mean ni he's he's probably older than
you wow no he's not but he he's a player that should not be part of the Gana national team his time should have come and went but he's still there he's still guaranteed caps that is not going to be good enough there's good Gan players it is not his team it should be built around mohammd I just say this just to put a quick ball on this until they get a real level of professionalism because when you speak to most of the African players who play they about the lack of professionalism lack of organization until
that side of it is done and they see that there's a real structure of professionalism and a desire to be successful we're going to keep seeing the same cycle repeat itself again and again with the majority of African nations lots to figure out but another big story line is all the injuries during this International break and perhaps no team dealing with it more than England who have eight players yeah look at that list who have withdrawn from the November Camp due to injury Dean rice on this list Jack greish Phil foden Trent Alexander Arnold I
mean some key key players with this side and we're seeing this really around World football right now one of the big contributing factors that's been pointed to is the increase in fixtures Mike when you see this list and what these teams are dealing with what comes to mind for you it's too much football it's way too much football but also when you look at this list I fail to have sympathy for England there's a bit of jealousy that I have being a fan of another country or being fans of other countes country s Leone I
I wish we had some of these players but that's a combination of having too much football matches it was only a couple months ago that we were just putting a cap on the European Championship we were just putting a cap on Copa America the Olympics now we have Club football now we have the Nations League I mean we're going to be less than a year away from the FIFA Club World Cup it's just too much football and a lot of these players young players Cole Palmer he's a young player Trent Alexander Arnold not as young
as he used to be Phil foden he's a young experienced player so the injuries are going to mount up and it's not just England that are feeling it it's the rest of world football Martin odard Arsenal season could be derailed because Martin odard played too much football gets injured internationally in a match that would have been deemed a friendly before that's deemed a mandatory match he has to go play and it's just I would say though let's be careful though because I think when you look at these Players let's look at it on an individual
case basis and I think with the England situation for me England have no one to blame but themselves they don't have a manager in place makes no sense to bring Thomas Tule in but he doesn't take over till January so of course these players are going to take advantage of it you know you're not the England manager you're the interm England manager so their players or clubs might have an influence to say this isn't that important stay at home because of how competitive the Premier League is so for me I think that plays a part
so I would say some of these players you got to look at an individual basis be on the club and how many games they're playing but like Michael said there is a lot of football but we're looking at expanded tournaments you know from back in years ago to play in the Champions League you had to be a champion to play in the Champions League there was maybe only three or four then we saw an expanded Champions League format and we saw an even more expanded Champions League format so some of these players are going to
play and when you are a top player or one of the best players you better believe you're going to play because it's beneficial for the club for merchandising and sell and people coming to watch the game but it's also beneficial for UEFA and it's also beneficial for FIFA they want to see the best players play so you're going to see them playing more and more games and you talk about FA Cup in England you talk about leagues cup you talk about obviously whether the teams are playing in in the the Champions League the Europa League
and now the Europa conference league so there's so many games that these players are consistently playing but at the same side the other argument is squads of 35 or 25 players managers can make changes if they want to you don't have to play those players week in and week out five substitutes now we went from three to five so there are opportunities for players to get rest in period in time but it's all again subjective well how many more matches are we are we really talking about what does that increase actually look like and our
incredible research team went and looked to compare some players from different Generations who played similar you know loads of of games with their squads and so here's a comparison from three different time periods so we've got zenan zidan in the early 2000s late 90s we've got lonel Messi in the 2010s and then we've got Bruno fernan now so as you can see there on the average matches the real jump really happens between zidan's era and lonel Messi going from an average of 51.3 matches to 66 and then that is kind of consistent with where we
are today factoring in all those things that you laid out with the expanded competitions more competitions added on so why Wen it didn't feel like we were talking about this as much in the 2010s were we well we weren't because Lio Messi household name you also have to remember especially with the lonel Messi stat Christiano Ronaldo also played a lot of games you would have to Pride these players off the pitch their longevity though is why we didn't talk about that players we not have players to getting injured as much as they are now Messi
is one of the difficult ones to put there because from when Messi made his debut everyone knew that Messi was a once in A- lifetime footballing Talent so he was always going to have to play he was at Barcelona was going to play and also in those periods there you had to go to the stadiums to watch the games it wasn't as big as it is now with social media playing a part now where we're seeing a lot more football a lot more analysts and people and everything's everyone's moaning about this and that but you
had to go there to watch the games and I feel for me when you use Messi as an example in that it's a difficult one because he's always going to play he always had to play and he also had to be successful for playing internationally for the Argentina team most teams were built around Messi making him successful so when I look at it now I would say like there are more games being played but I feel that in that generation it was different yeah I I I think the big reason why we talk about it
now is because of the injuries and you look at the big players that have gotten injured especially young players getting injured young players who are typically not playing the same games as lonel Messi n young players now that are playing up to 60 games lamin yamal if his manager hanzi flick didn't take precaution in two matches this season he would play every single match for both club and Country the kid's not even old enough to drink a beer in the United States of America let alone go and do the things that people who are 18
years and do think old enough to vote okay he's old enough to not vote we can't talk about beer but this is all about injuries and you have to protect your young Talent Barcelona are a prime example of this as well because but there's only been more and more resources put into the physical therapy and the training and the treatment that these players get so these players they're human yeah but I'm aware of that I'm just saying though sure lonel Messi and the players in the early 2010s didn't have the same level of of care
that is now available I think it's it's the it's the injuries that's making it a factor and obviously how us as the media cover it but for me I agree with you Ali I think that it's got to be looked again like an individual basis some players are just naturally prone to get injured more than others and then not every Club is the same the way that you go into one club and their Sports Science and how they treat players is completely to another club completely different to another club all of that plays a part
in how you train your body how the clubs has their Sports scientists their nutrition this it's all different and at the end of the day I've always been someone that I could play all those games without having no problems not getting injured I went in my entire career the worst injury I had was a fractured ankle so for me I hate when we try and tarnish everyone with the same brush but everyone's different what Messi did is phenomenal and how he did it and how he stayed fit but I'm sure that Barcelona played a part
and he stayed able to play now because again like you said it's got even better and improved when it comes to sports science to keep that longevity other players will get injured because you're just not genetically built to be as successful as some players so I I I think my only rebuttal to that is the human body can only do so much and from lonel Messi playing 60 something games which were all saying wow Bruno fernan playing 70s something games only a few years later which were saying oh my gosh to players we're getting to
a point where players are going to be playing 80 matches in a calendar year yeah Sport Science can only take you so far because look at the top players n the top players who were getting injured on the regular not for a couple weeks but for out in entire season okay but we say that but when you look at the most these players there's players names unfortunately rodri was another one who played a tremendous amount of games until he did got injured recently KL Walker is a player that's played a lot of games as well
he wasn't on the list but KL Walker's played pretty much near the same amount of games of Bruno Fernandez and maybe even more for Manchester city in England he's not injured but what's pep guarda done set him on the bench and put Rico Lewis and used other players so we're only concentrating in it's becoming a big deal because we're concent players who are getting injured the number of players who have played just as many games who don't get a mention because they're not injured because they stayed fit I think one thing we can all agree
on is that we are seeing more star players more key F figures within their squads dealing with some pretty significant season ending injuries and important note too that on some of those injuries non- contct was the culprit in that and just all around an interesting conversation and one that we will continue to have here on the Gazo Network and all of our platforms as fixture congestion is a real thing and the injuries certainly are as well
