The importance of Elephants, Lions and Magpies
Who would have thought that a couple of Newcastle United's biggest games of the season would be battled out over two legs in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers?
The stakes are incredibly high for both Senegal and Ivory Coast who know that their absence from January's finals in South Africa will heap national embarrassment on two proud football nations.
But they are equally as high for Newcastle who know that they are guaranteed to lose at least one of their biggest stars for up to six weeks next January.
Whether it will be Cheick Tiote or both Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse remains to be seen, but either way it could have major implications on Alan Pardew's squad and potentially United's season overall.
Perhaps many feel that coping without Tiote is the better option.
Losing United's main source of goals though in Ba and Cisse is a major worry for fans.
The squad is already limited in terms of striker cover and you would fancy that a replacement in January would have to be sorted out.
Then prices go up, agents wish to cash in and it all becomes complicated.
The closure of the window last month proved that.
Of course failing to get to the finals for proud competitors like Ba and Cisse would be a massive blow for the duo.
If Senegal had their way this summer, we'd have already lost the pair to the Olympics.
And I don't even want to think about the possibilities if Senegal do qualify, win the ACN and then have to play in the 2013 Confederations Cup next June in Brazil just a few weeks before pre-season!
Therefore it goes without saying that most of us will be roaring on the Ivory Coast over the two legs of the eliminator.
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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