Rodri's strike comment

[Mcfc1.9.8.0]

It’s not just that. It’s the pre season that starts, in some cases, 2 weeks after the end of the season. Newcastle and Spurs were in Australia playing each other in June this year. Add to that international comps.

It doesn’t matter if they’re paid £1 or £100,000, the human body and mind has its limits. The money argument, which I know you’ve not put but it’s out there today, is a nonsense.

Too many games.

If the players were told we will have a local pre season in the UK but that will cost the club £10m so you’ll all have to take a pay cut they’d be unhappy to

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

He's got the orange **** on Talkshite rattled so that'll do for me

What does Trump know about football?

 

[domalino]

I've little sympathy for modern day players claiming they are overworked by playing too many games. Makes me think of the days when players used to play nearly every game back in the day on muddy and icy pitches unlike nowadays where most PL are kept like bowling greens all year, and only one substitution was allowed. Liverpool players played more games than anyone but I never heard any of them complaining, they just got on with it.

In 1970 the average player ran 4km a game. Souness in Liverpools 1981 treble winning season played 61 games. That's roughly 244km in a season. He had 94 days before the next season started.

In 2020 the average player ran 12km a game. Rodri played 69 games in our treble winning season. That's roughly 828km. He had 54 days between the last game of the season and the first of next.

The players are doing 4x as much work and getting half as much rest. It's not the same sport.

 

[OntarioBlue]

How many games over the season was that though?
I’m pretty sure they weren’t playing up to 75/80 a season including international games.

There were 42 league games, plus FA Cup, European games and Internationals. Not 75/80 for sure but 55/60 possibly. Don’t forget that as well as the terrible pitches there were no substitutions (or one max) so players who started played the whole game, unlike today.

I do understand Rodri’s position but let’s be honest, players at his level live a pretty pampered existence for which they are handsomely rewarded. He’s also just had two months off (his words not mine). Who else gets that much time off from their job.

Of course we need to protect the players but let’s not make it a bigger issue than it actually is. We’re talking about finely tuned athletes in their physical prime having to play 180 minutes of football a week.

 

[Phil1]

There were 42 league games, plus FA Cup, European games and Internationals. Not 75/80 for sure but 55/60 possibly. Don’t forget that as well as the terrible pitches there were no substitutions (or one max) so players who started played the whole game, unlike today.

I do understand Rodri’s position but let’s be honest, players at his level live a pretty pampered existence for which they are handsomely rewarded. He’s also just had two months off (his words not mine). Who else gets that much time off from their job.

Of course we need to protect the players but let’s not make it a bigger issue than it actually is. We’re talking about finely tuned athletes in their physical prime having to play 180 minutes of football a week.

Having just read @domalino post I think he sums it up perfectly.
You either want a superior product or you don’t.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

Tbh I don't know if he's right or not.

They ARE playing too much.
They ARE getting paid way too much.

 

[Really_here]

There were 42 league games, plus FA Cup, European games and Internationals. Not 75/80 for sure but 55/60 possibly. Don’t forget that as well as the terrible pitches there were no substitutions (or one max) so players who started played the whole game, unlike today.

I do understand Rodri’s position but let’s be honest, players at his level live a pretty pampered existence for which they are handsomely rewarded. He’s also just had two months off (his words not mine). Who else gets that much time off from their job.

Of course we need to protect the players but let’s not make it a bigger issue than it actually is. We’re talking about finely tuned athletes in their physical prime having to play 180 minutes of football a week.

I don't think the issue is purely the number of games, it's also the shrinking of the time for the players to have a decent break between the end of one Premier League season to the beginning of the next. As has already been said Haaland appears to have benefited massively from getting a decent break and he doesn't have a wife/children to try and spend time with. What's the point of having millions in the bank if you don't have time to enjoy them?

 

[domalino]

I don't think the issue is purely the number of games, it's also the shrinking of the time for the players to have a decent break between the end of one Premier League season to the beginning of the next. As has already been said Haaland appears to have benefited massively from getting a decent break and he doesn't have a wife/children to try and spend time with. What's the point of having millions in the bank if you don't have time to enjoy them?

The quality of the time off is also shite. I put in my last comment that Rodri got 54 days off but let’s be honest, for a month of that he was touring China, Japan and South Korea. So he’s not resting away from football with his friends and family, he’s in a hotel room, training and doing club sponsor/publicity commitments with the same blokes he’s supposed to be getting a break from.

Rest is where the players should start, and I think they have this in the collective bargaining agreements you see in American sports, so there may be some precedent. there’s set periods of time where the players aren’t allowed to train or do club duties, it is actually time off.

 

[domalino]

If the players were told we will have a local pre season in the UK but that will cost the club £10m so you’ll all have to take a pay cut they’d be unhappy to

I doubt it. £10m is like 0.3% of our salary bill. I bet most senior players would swap an extra 2 weeks off for that money and I think the coaches would be in favour too.

 

[M23 Citizen]

To reduce the number of games either the players need to take a pay cut or the competitions need to change. A pay cut only works though if it means that the clubs stop chasing every last penny and start to insist on change’s to the competitions.
Some possible changes are:

The Premier League reduced to 18 clubs, as originally intended. The fact it won’t, when it would be in the best interests of everyone in it and the competition itself, is a perfect example of what City called the ‘tyranny of the majority’.

No League Cup for any team already qualified for European competition (might encourage lower half premier league teams to put out a proper team as well).

Those 2 actions alone take 10 games away from any team that gets to the final of the league cup.

Of course, none of that will happen because player greed and corporate greed have entirely taken over the game and self financial interest will win out, as always.

The Premier League is the last competition I want reducing.

I would get rid of:
International friendles
International Euros/World Cup qualification (make the Nations League and previous Euros/WC performances the qualification criteria)
Pre-season tours

If anything were to be reduced it should be the Euros and World Cup, make them smaller (like the Euros used to be), revert the CL back to 32 teams, bin off the EFL Cup for teams in Europe, have no replays and no ET in the FA Cup… before ever looking at reducing the size of the Premier League.