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Much has been made of Andre Onana’s delayed departure to the African Cup of Nations.
The goalkeeper has been both criticised and praised for his decision to delay his departure so he could help his club, Manchester United, in the FA Cup tie against Wigan and the crucial Premier League clash with Tottenham last Sunday.
However, the drama didn’t end there for Onana, as his flight was delayed and he only arrived at his team’s training camp hours before their opening match.
As a result, the Cameroonian keeper was left out of the game and did not play until yesterday’s disappointing 3-1 loss against Senegal where he didn’t cover himself with glory either by flapping at a corner that resulted in his side going 1-0 down.
There was clearly intention on the player’s part to take part in the opener as The Athletic have revealed United paid around $100,000 for the private jet that took him to the Ivory Coast.
Commenting on the Red Devils’ keeper’s delayed flight, The Athletic states that “there is so much claim and counterclaim as to why he was left out of the side that drew 1-1 with Guinea on Monday evening that it is difficult to know which information to follow. But there is no doubt that the logistical schedule to get him to this tournament did not go to plan”.
“Onana had been slated to land at an airport in Yamoussoukro, the inland Ivorian capital where the Group C game was being held. Instead, he went to Abidjan, 233km (144 miles) away on the coast. Representatives of the player suggest this was because of fog in the centre of the country”.
The Athletic corroborates Onana’s side of events by claiming that they had to drive to Yamoussoukro by road on Monday and there was “a thin layer of mist lifted from the canopies of the region’s forests as the heat of the day began to cut through the atmosphere”. Hence, making it very likely that air travel would have been unsafe.
After the demoralising draw with Guinea, Rigobert Song, the Cameroon manager, “suggested it had been impossible for Onana to play that day, and that he was using ‘logic’ in saying so.
Song asked, ‘How can you arrive at 4am and play at 5pm?’. In fact, Onana was not meant to arrive at Yamoussoukro’s tiny regional airport, where planes need special permits to land, until 6am at the earliest”.
The crux of the debate is why Song continued to insist the player could have arrived earlier.
“Yamoussoukro is a three-hour drive from Abidjan, depending on the intensity of the traffic. Reporters in Cameroon believe Onana did not arrive at the team hotel in the capital until midday on Monday — just five hours before kick-off”.
Therefore, why did Song suggest the impossible time of 4am as an arrival? As the article puts it, Onana was not flying on Concorde.
Either the manager has been “given the wrong information in relation to the planning of the journey, or he has been misled about its execution”.
“Does that mean Song was not counting on Onana, regardless of the late rush to get him back to Africa? And if Song was aware of these arrangements, why did he make him board the plane on Sunday night in the first place, when the player could have travelled later on a schedule that improved the chances of him turning up in a fresher state of mind?”.
Clearly, “the player, the manager and the country’s football federation do not seem to be on the same page about what really happened”.
In another potential source of conflict for the future, Onana did not seem overly impressed by his non-selection for the match and claimed, “I have a lot of things to say, but I won’t say it here because we are in competition. “The most important thing is sacred union. We are here to win AFCON 2023”.
Onana’s camp have also denied that he had to forcibly calmed down by the former Senegalese striker, El Hadji Diouf, at the Charles Konan Banny stadium after discovering that he would be omitted from the squad.
Song has a reputation as a “disciplinarian, bringing some old-school values to the national set-up”, Consequently there have been clashes with established stars who were banished from the squad despite their history with the nation.
If Onana and Cameroon do go on to get eliminated by failing to beat Gambia, expect more tension bubbling underneath to be released, as there is something clearly not working in the Cameroonian footballing federation and certainly not between goalkeeper and coach.
The post Andre Onana’s and Rigobert Song’s disagreement over arrival time to base camp shows tensions are just waiting to boil over again appeared first on Man United News And Transfer News | The Peoples Person.
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| Article Name | United's laughable $100,000 private jet shambles revealed by The Athletic |
| Description |
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| Author Name | Candyboy |
| Published On | January 20, 2024 |
| Post Category |
Man Utd
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