The Last Thing You Wanted To Hear

August 29th, 2008 | by: Rami |

damnit Amine Chermiti suffered a huge setback in his young career yesterday. Just as it was looking like he was finding his feet at Hertha and would begin to figure more often in their starting lineup, he suffered ligament damage in his left knee 11 minutes into his team’s UEFA cup match against Interblock Ljubljana. The early word out of Germany is that he won’t be available until at least end of October.

While this is certainly very frustrating for Chermiti on a personal level (he was expected to start against Bayern Munich this weekend), it is even worse for our national team before the defining match of our World Cup qualifying campaign against Burkina Faso next weekend. The fact that he’ll also miss out on our glamor friendly against France in Paris in mid October only compounds the disappointment.

Amine’s speed cannot be replaced by anyone in our squad and his big game experience is another lost asset. He looked comfortable playing out on the left in Coelho’s newly installed system and got on the scoresheet as well. The only silver lining, if you can even call it that, for Chermiti is that he hasn’t had a vacation for over 2 years and will probably get to return home to his family for the month of Ramadan. Etoile’s demanding schedule might have taken a toll on his body but his knee didn’t just give out on it’s own from fatigue or something. He suffered a nasty tackle at a nasty time and now we all have to live with the consequences. This is a sad reality that many Carthage Eagles fans have yet to come to terms with.

Keep your head up young man. All you have to do now is get some well deserved rest and make sure that you come back with a vengeance two months down the line. Rabbi yeshfik.

Are We “Chursed?”

Someone on Tunisie foot made the astute observation that our players who have a “ch” in their name have been incredibly unlucky recently. These players also happen to be some of our most technically skilled and valuable offensive options. After a full season on the sidelines and just when it was looking like he was coming back to form, Namouchi reeinjured himself in his first match back with the Carthage Eagles. He is expected to be out four to six weeks with a muscle tear in his hamstring.

Yassine Chikhaoui was dominating the Swiss league and looking certain to secure a big money move to a high profile club after showing off his skills at the African Cup (on a bum knee). Alas, after the tournament he decided to take care of the nagging knee problem and was supposed to only be out for three months. It’s been a lot more than that and besides for some murmerings, there’s been no concrete news on when he will return and whether or not he will remain at Zurich. Now Chermiti joins these two on the sidelines at the worst possible moment. Should Khalil Chamem, Chawki Ben Saada, and Hichem Essifi be worried? Lotf 3lihoum. One can only pray that this “churse” doesn’t deprive us of anyone else. Even those who don’t have these two letters in their name.

Cryptic Message

OM coach Eric Gerets declared he desired one more player before the mercato ends. He didn’t mention the players position but did say that the person in question “was tall in height and in talent.” You know who that might be right? Chhhhhhh…….

Haggui: “We’re In Danger”

Karim Haggui gave a candid interview to FIFA.com and didn’t mince his words about the seriousness of our current qualifying predicament. We have no choice but to respond next weekend.

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Skander
Achraf

This is a blower. But i think that we could win against Burkina.
———————————-Balbouli——————————-
——Ben Freg————Ghzal————-Haggui————Mikari—–

————————–Traoui————Mnari————————-
————————–Belaid————Ben Saada———————
————————–Jemaa————-Santos———————–
This is a predictable line up that Coelho would go with, since it is an attacking system.I would bring in Boujelban for Traoui, Mouihbi for Santos, Darragi for Mnari as subs. Hopefully we will get the win. 3-1
Momo

This is devastating news Rami. Poor Chermiti, he was gonna get the game of his life against Bayern, but luck turned his back on him and us since he’ll be missing the game against Burkina Faso too. I just wish him all luck and a quick recovery from this dangerous injury. It is unfortunate for Tunisia to have some key players out ahead of a crucial qualifier against Burkina. Players like Chikhaoui, Chermiti, Namouchi are all very special and could make a difference. And now there is news of Santos being sidelined too. I don’t know who replace Chermiti and (maybe) Santos. The Addition of Benkhalfallah is certainly a plus since Chikhaoui is out, but in attack our choices are very limited in attack. I was expecting the talented CSS striker Hamza Younes to be called up by Coleho (scored 2 goals in 2 games) only to hear the news that he was caught using an illegal substance and driving under its influence. He was taken to jail and will be suspended by his club..very disappointing. Maybe this could be Amir Akrout’s turn to get a call up? who knows!
Rachid

Despite the setbacks, I believe we still can pull off a win against BF, if we do some serious out-of-the-box thinking? Why limit ourselves to just well-known NAMES, playing presumably for more advanced European teams? Why not tap into our local telent pool? For example, does Ben Frej play better now that he is with a French team, or when he was with Etoile? I was disgusted with how he performed against Angola. Egypt won back to back CAF championships mostly with local players! The so-called “European” stars from Cote d’Ivoire and other African teams could not make it. Did we learn anything from that? How come Ahly does not release its stars to European teams? I doubt very much Abou-Treka has not received any good offers from Europe, but Ahly is smart enough to keep their good players and that’s how they dominate in Africa. Chermiti, Chikhaoui, and others are too young to leave Etoile and I cannot help but imagine what Etoile we would have if we still had those two around and the other talents they left for relatively lesser teams. This business of chasing quick money has had disastrous consequences. Our national team is sinking and we keep foolishly thinking we have great talent in Europe! What does that do for us? Reality check, please!
Yassine

I can’t beleive it! Is it luck? Our best players get injured when we most need them (Santos in the 2006 WC), and they get injured when they are in the peak of their form. Chikhaoui when he was so close to a dream move to a top European club for a record fee, Chermiti when he was going to start against the mighty Bayern, Namouchi got injured last season when he was scoring many goals and fielding amazing performances.
Skander

Haggui opened the goalparty for Leverkusen today in the 8th minute. He played the whole match like a rightback.. It’s really good that he scored in his debute. At least we’ve got some positive news . I’ll watch MArseille – Sochaux today on tv. We’ll see if Santos is going to play.
Skander

Leverkusen won 5-2 against Hoffenheim
Momo

Hey Rachid I see your point there brother, but Al Ahly is not only smart enough to keep its players, but also rich enough to do so. (I don’t know if you should really call them smart because when you look at their strategy you’ll realize that they spend twice or thrice what they make..if not of the government support Al Ahly would have been a dead club years ago). Tunisian clubs don’t make a lot of money, and faced with very high expenses to play in a professional league you end up selling your best players to 1) survive and 2) because you can’t match the salaries European clubs offer to your players. As they say “Mokrahon akhaka la batal”. But in a way this is a good thing. Because the Tunisian league has transformed from a Importer league to an exporting one. We are becoming more of formation factory in the backyard of Europe. Even a team like Esperance, which was renowned for signing only established big names, is now following the trend and injecting a significant amount of youth into their system, because they also found out that the only way to survive is to sell their talented players (and trust me you make more money this way than trying to build a team and win continental titles..the only thing you can win in Africa is titles..but money hell no) I can’t blame Tunisian clubs for what they are doing, because they seem to be doing the right thing. They are just adjusting to the hand they’ve been dealt and are being very realistic about their goals. This has also resulted in a higher competition locally, because now with all the young players everywhere you don’t know what is really the difference between Esperance or Club Afircain players and Beja players or Hammam Sousse players for example, unlike a few years back when you can easily tell the difference. They’re all young unestablished players working hard to improve and then move on to Europe. I personally like this system and its the one we should be following. It will help the clubs financially, create international stars, widen and deepen the National pool, increase local league competition, and eventually strengthen the National Team. You have to be patient though with youth, so I see your concern here Rachid. It’s just like a tree that you plant and take good care of and wait a whole cycle to get results. Wait on our youth and you’ll see wonders. Remember a guy named Darraji, he’s the next Chikhaoui.
Achraf

Congrats to Haggui on a great game today. Also according to kawarji.com Chikhaoui is leaving FC ZURICH for Havre AC in France. It looks like he will be playing against a lot of Tunisians. Mehdi Ben Diffallah and Mohamed Sellit will be replacing Chermiti and Santos for the qualifier game against Burkina. I dont like the call up for selliti. He shoul have called nafkha instead and put ben saada forward.
Abdullah

Achraf could you place the link here please?
I have taken a look around on that site but i can’t find the starting line up.
Skander

Chikhaoui to Le Havre?. What the hell is happening?!, maybe it’s a conflict about ramadan that is coming. I think they want him to eat and drink. But a move to a club where he can play is better, maybe he’ll do a bigger move in winter… -.-
Achraf

The link for the chikhaoui move is here http://www.kawarji.com/index.php
Abdullah

Yea that one i already read, but the one about sellit and ben dhifallah i could not find.
Achraf

http://www.infosfoot.net/fr/articles/article.php?id_article=545
Rachid

Momo, I appreciate your great explanation. Sure like to see more great players emerging from all our teams, and I just hate to see them get injured when we most need them. But, you never know, good surprises do happen in football and may be the substitutes will get the job done. Let’s hope that they do!
Abdullah

Thanks Achraf, what a weird decission of Coelho to pick selliti, i can understand that Ben Dhifallah has made some mistakes but he’s still a good striker.

But what about Selliti… the only thing i know about him is that he plays for Stade Tunisien, and that he’s old…. well not that old… but why him??

Why use him when you can use Jemaa?
Abdullah

Thanks Achraf, what a weird decission of Coelho to pick selliti, i can understand that Ben Dhifallah has made some mistakes but he’s still a good striker.

But what about Selliti… the only thing i know about him is that he plays for Stade Tunisien, and that he’s old…. well not that old… but why him??

Why use him when you can use Jemaa and Mouihbi?

It makes no sense
Achraf

exactly Abdullah, I was shocked as well.
Achraf

I WANT TO WIAH EVERYONE A HAPPY RAMADAN
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Romdhankoum mabrouk ya jme3a! Kol 3am ou entouma 7ayin ou b5ir!

Achraf and Abdullah, I disagree about Selliti. I like the call up and I’m going to write an article a little later tonight about why I think it’s a good idea. I don’t have conclusive evidence that it’s the best decision or anything but it’s just a personal opinion of mine.
Momo

Romdhan mabrouk to you as well Rami and everyone. Selliti is a good player. I think he’s the least fortunate player in Tunisia. Skill wise he’s probably the best clinical striker in the league now, meaning if you give him a chance he’ll take full advantage of it, and we need someone like that in the absence of Chermiti (who is really more of a roadrunner than a finisher) and the yet unconvincing Santos. With either Jemaa, Mouihbi or Ben Dhifallah next to him, Selliti will be able to cause problems to opponent’s defense, and he is certainly worth the call-up. Thumbs up Humberto.
Abdullah

Ramdhan mabrouk wa kol 3aam wa ontom bigair.
On the other hand, if selliti would be fit for the job and assuming hes a good striker, would you put ben dhifallah next to him, mouihbi or jemaa?

Im really trying to find the whole idea about ben dhifallah and selliti together, what does he see in them that he doesnt see with jemaa for example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVkiNZfpNvU&feature=related look at that, i doubt ben dhifallah nor selliti could top that.