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Ba and Cisse Off To Old Trafford?

12 years ago
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News from Senegal’s FA president Augustin Senghor that he will be looking to call up Newcastle’s two top scorers Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse, rules allowing three players over the age of 23.

If called up they could be facing Great Britain at Old Trafford on July 26th.

“If we call them [Ba and Cisse], they will come. They are patriotic guys”, said Senghor, sounding a little like the voiceover in the opening credits of The A-Team.

I imagine Ba and Cisse would go along to play for their country in the Olympics – given Senegal’s performance in the African cup of nations, it looks unlikely they will get to play in a major tournament any time soon.

However, for Newcastle United this is something surely Pardew could do without. January saw Ba and Tiote, followed by Cisse, to Africa – missing around eight games in the process. This will happen again in January 2013, as the tournament moves from even, to odd years (why they couldn’t miss a tournament instead of adding one is anyone’s guess).

So that would be three international tournaments played within twelve months for top strikers, for me that is staggering. Imagine Sir Alex Ferguson’s face if Stuart Pearce (or whoever they bribe to become England manager) dared to ask Rooney and Welbeck to do the same!!

You may have guessed I could take or leave international football, especially England – who I have refused to watch since Shearer left. I have more interest in checking on how Tim Krul or Yohan Cabaye get on for their respective nations.

So I wouldn’t be over-impressed if our two stars were called up, given how ‘professionally’ Senegal look to be ran – their former coach is reportedly still owed £44,000 in unpaid wages from his sacking in February following Senegal’s horror show at The African Cup of Nations.

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