Jordan Ayew has been included in Ghana’s World Cup 2022 squad along with his brother Andre. Ayew is a trustworthy player who doesn’t mind putting a shift in for his club and country. Having helped Ghana to qualify for the World Cup, it was expected that Ayew would be included in the 26-man squad travelling to Qatar.

Ghana had a disappointing time at the Africa Cup of Nations this year finishing bottom of their group. They’ll be hoping to change this at the World Cup as the fans will still remember the heartache at the 2010 World Cup when they lost to Uruguay in the semi-final.

Coincidentally, Uruguay are in the same group as Ghana along with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Heung Min Son’s South Korea. They have the largest odds to get out of the group so there’s not much hope for the West African country. But, you never know what’s going to happen in tournament football.

Unfortunately, fellow Palace teammate and Ghana international, Jeffrey Schlupp, didn’t make the squad even though he’s a versatile player.

If Ghana drop out of the competition early, we could see Ayew back in training with the Palace squad as they have a friendly home match against Botafogo in December. That said, Vieira will likely give the two players heading to the World Cup, Ayew and Andersen (Denmark), extra time off to recover from the intense run of matches they’re likely to have.

With only one Premier League match left before the break for the Winter World Cup, Gareth Southgate has announced his 26-man squad for the tournament. Crystal Palace duo Marc Guehi and Tyrick Mitchell who have both earned caps for England in the past have missed out.

Mitchell was mentioned more so than Guehi this time around as a backup for Luke Shaw as Ben Chilwell is out injured. Mitchell hasn’t had the best start to the season for Palace and Southgate likes the experience that Kieran Trippier offers even as a left-back.

Fikayo Tomori is another centre-back that missed out alongside Marc Guehi and he won the Serie A with AC Milan last season. James Tarkowski is another defender that didn’t make it whereas Conor Coady has made it into the squad. Harry Maguire has made the squad even though he’s not had as many minutes as he would have liked since Erik Ten Hag came in.

Chelsea midfielder and former Crystal Palace player, Conor Gallagher, has made the squad which has meant that James Ward-Prowse misses out. Gallagher is playing more under Potter than he did under Tuchel at the start of the season and his form at Palace last season was probably what made Southgate pick him.

With one Premier League match left before the break, there’s still a chance that any of these 26 pick-up injuries forcing Southgate to make changes before the team flies out for the tournament.

Keepers

• Aaron Ramsdale
• Jordan Pickford
• Nick Pope

Defenders

• Conor Coady
• Harry Maguire
• John Stones
• Kieran Trippier
• Luke Shaw
• Ben White
• Kyle Walker
• Trent Alexander-Arnold
• Eric Dier

Midfielders

• Conor Gallagher
• Mason Mount
• Declan Rice
• Jude Bellingham
• Kalvin Phillips
• Jordan Henderson

Forwards

• Harry Kane
• Raheem Sterling
• Callum Wilson
• Bukayo Saka
• Jack Grealish
• Marcus Rashford
• Phil Foden
• James Maddison

At the end of every season, current players will move on and new ones will join. A couple of weeks ago, Crystal Palace listed the players that would be leaving both the senior squad as well as the academy players.

Martin Kelly had already announced his departure a couple of days after the final match of the season. Then, on the 10th of June, the released players list was posted on the club’s website.

The only other senior player that was on this list was Jarosław Jach who had been at the club since 2018 but didn’t manage to break into a regular starting role and was loaned out the previous two seasons.

Another Palace player who could leave due to contract expiry is Cheikhou Kouyate. The club made it clear that they wanted to retain him for another season at least, but with his contract expiring on the 30th of June, it looks as if he’ll join another club on a free transfer.

As we mentioned, some academy players have also been released and you can see the full list of names below:

• Luke Dreher
• Rian Jamai
• Kanye Jobson
• Nya Kirby
• Joseph Ling
• Sean Robertson
• Sion Spence
• Aidan Steele
• James Taylor
• Dylan Thiselton