ACN preview:

The African Cup of Nations starts on Saturday, with the event returning to Gabon, who were co-host with Equatorial Guinea in 2012, that was won by Zambia who some of you will have fond memories of, as I suggested pre tournament (84-1) to get on if you could and many of you did at 66-1 and above.

They have not qualified this time round, but I spoke ahead of that about how well prepared they were, they had been together for almost two months by the time the group stage was over and had done some high altitude training and left with the incredibly motivational words of their President ringing in their ears ......

Zambia arrive here without Jacob Mulenga, the Utrecht striker and he will be missed, but I expect them to go well none the less. They will arrive as one of the best prepared, the squad having been together pretty much since early December, that is over six weeks and included some high altitude work which is going to serve them well down at these sea level venues, we discussed the ( perhaps obvious) benefits of this during the last World Cup. They are a confident bunch and with many still in their early twenties, are improving and they look set to play a part in all major championships in the next 4-5 years. Four of the starters were regulars in their own "golden generation" team which performed with great credit at the 2007 U20 World Cup, beating Uruguay and running Spain, who included Mata and Gerard Pique, close and even ragged at times.

If you watched the last ACN, you will doubtless remember them, they lost in the quarter finals to Nigeria on penalties in a match they totally dominated and previously were all over Cameroon in the group decider, losing to a very late winner after missing several chances to take a two goal lead. That is a problem, they do not score quite enough in relation to the chances they create, but mark my words, this is a very talented group.

They have extra motivation to do well, as much for a former generation as theirselves, with 28 national players and officials dying off the coast of Libreville, Gabon en route to a World Cup qualifier with Senegal in Dakar in 1994. Even the President spoke of this in a personal message to the squad, saying: “You will recall from history and from your football leadership the special place that Gabon – venue of the 2012 final match – holds in our football history. "It is the place where your predecessors valiantly died off the shores of the Atlantic Ocean."Therefore, this tournament brings us those memories and makes this Africa Cup a very emotional one. That, however, should not put you under any pressure. It should instead inspire you to conquer.”

He then went on to urge his team to "die a little for Mother Zambia " and to "fight for every ball, cover every space and in the true sense of the might of the Chipolopolo, never to feel intimidated by anybody or surrender to any opposition."

I wonder if David Cameron will get so passionate before Euro 2012 !

Back in charge since October is Herve Renard, who guided them to the last eight in 2010, he left after that and was replaced by Italian coach Dario Bonetti, that didn't work very well, an Italian in Zambia was like oil on water and the players called upon their FA and President to remove him, they admitted afterwards that Bonetti had given them a tactical edge they perhaps lacked before, but are so much happier with Renard at the helm and the six weeks together have helped them re-bond as a unit. They are still as explosive, but feel they have added discipline to their approach and that will serve them very well here.

Teams can win this tournament at big prices and improve quickly and those that have prepared well and bonded will always be at an advantage, I know that sounds like stating the obvious, but you also know that at the ACN others will arrive with internal disputes, squads split into cliques and probably arguments over money.

This year, in addition to Libreville and Franceville who hosted in 2012, Oyem and Port Gentil have been added to pick up the Equatorial Guinea "slack", all are at sea level apart from Oyem which is at 900m, so not really any issues in that regard, like we have had in the past at major tournaments and conditions in terms of weather should be similar at all four venues.

Gabon won their section in 2012 when they won all three group games and are again based in the capital Libreville where half the tiny 1.5 m popualtion of the country live, but come into this tournament as the lowest ranked nation and I doubt they will be able to ride their luck again to quite the extent they did four years ago. But they do have one stand out player in Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and that will always give them a chance. Speaking of rankings, 13 of the 16 nations have a FIFA ranking of between 33 (Senegal) and 72 (Uganda), so very close followed by Togo 91, Zimbabwe 102 and Gabon 110. We have eight former winners of the competition and one in Guinea Bissau who are making their debut, they are very much dark horses and on paper the squad looks amongst the weakest, but they took four points from Zambia in qualification so command some respect.

Draw looks like this ...........

Group A: Gabon/Burkina Faso/Cameroon/Guinea Bissau
Group B: Algeria/Tunisia/Senegal/Zimbabwe