Amine Chermiti’s Place in Ghana Under Threat?

On this weeks edition of Dimanche sport on TV7 there was an interview in which Roger Lemerre answered a few questions regarding the preparations of the team for the upcoming African Cup. Lemerre was asked about his thought on the group and how it was progressing and part of his answer might worry Amine Chermiti fans (myself included). Some might forget this but Chermiti received a red card (I believe it was for a second yellow) for simulation in our last qualifier against Sudan. I thought that this would result in him only missing one match in Ghana if he was called upon to represent the team but it turns out that the punishment is a ban of two matches. Since there’s only 3 matches in the group stages and qualification to the second round is by no means a guarantee, it seems that Lemerre might be having second thoughts about including Chermiti in the group since he will not be available for the our first two games. He didn’t outright say that he wasn’t taking him but he alluded to the facts I stated above and said that implied that “one has to deal with the situations that football presents us with.”

I don’t know for sure what he means by that but this would be a bitter blow to the promising young striker who should be at the peak of his abilities by the time the African Cup rolls around. Not only will this hurt him in terms of getting exposure (although the Club World Championships will help with that) but it really hurts the team in general as he has the potential to be a pivotal element in our attack. I really hope that Roger gives him a roster spot anyway. With the way Dos Santos is playing I’d rather gamble and include Chermiti and then use him later on in the competition where goals will be harder to come by.

After his displays in the domestic Ligue 1 and the African Champions League you would think Chermiti would be a shoo in for the team but the suspension makes the situation a little bit more complex. It will be interesting to see whether or not he plays against Austria on Wednesday. Lemerre might still be clinging to the hope of bring Dos Santos back to form by giving him extended minutes again. A different interpretation to this situation is that Lemerre has seen enough of Chermiti to know that he could be useful in the latter stages of the African Cup and is therefore going to test out different strike partnerships in the upcoming friendlies to see who he can rely on in the first two games of the tournament. It’s a little confusing really. I hope that is in fact how Lemerre sees things right now.

The interview can be seen below about 11 minutes into the video and extended highlights of the Namibia match begin at about the 14 and half minute mark. The segments continue into the second video and then Zoubeir Beya touches on the Chermiti situation very briefly and goes into how Santos is hurting the national team right now.

On a different note, in part 3 you can see a segment in which Chermiti literally bites the chest of a Club Africain defender while they are jockeying for position. Looks like the CA-ESS match was quite a derby! Being passionate is one thing but this is not really what we want to be seeing out of a young guy who plays at the highest level (even though it was pretty funny to watch).

Update

I’m not sure everything corresponds in terms of time etc. but it’s still the same edition of Dimanche Sport.