Here's a little historical snippet - only relevant in relation to managers these days who aren't happy when their teams have to play several midweek games in a row as well as Saturdays. As I was updating my historical tables for Charlton's 1925-26 campaign I noticed this; In the spring of 1926 Charlton played 4 league games in 5 days - 2nd, 3rd, 5th & 6th April. And playing 3 games in 4 days was not uncommon. Back in those times we did that at least once almost every season. Imagine the uproar these days if a team is even asked to play 2 games within 48 hours.
Spurs goalkeeper Joe Hart (remember him?) apologises after one of his 'social media team' posts "Job done" after Tottenham crash out of the Europa League. He says the person who made the Instagram post mistakenly thought Spurs had won 3-0 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56454297 What is the point of following the social media accounts of footballers if they aren't even going to post messages in person? Surely Joe Hart's fans want to know what he thinks - not platitudes posted by someone he employs? If you're going to pay someone to pretend to be you on social media Joe, at least employ someone who isn't a total muppet.
Some scientists are now saying that mask rules and social distancing might be necessary for many years to come. That's rather different from the line we've been sold by the Government, that vaccines would be the route back to normality and an end to the pandemic in the UK. Put simply, the continuation of mask rules and social distancing at football grounds will kill the game. Clubs cannot survive on attendances of 4,000 or similar in stadiums that were built for 20,000 or 30,000 or more. And I don't think (in the longer term) that many fans will want to go to football anymore if they have to sit apart from each other wearing masks, and not be allowed to chant. Even the insipid and inferior option of watching your team play via a streaming service will be taken away in the end, because Club after Club will simply fold and cease to exist. That possible future cannot be allowed to happen.
Poor OGS - can't win a trophy Since he took over at Manchester United in December 2018 Charlton have won more silverware than United; CAFC ... 1 x League One Play-Off Winners trophy May 2019 MUFC ... nothing
A new format for the Champions's League from 2024... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56573883 A whopping 19 games to win the tournament - Half a Premier League season. Even in the never-ending Europa League you 'only' have to play 17 games to win it. So it's goodnight for the League Cup then. More money sucked away from the EFL and pulled into the gravity well of the biggest European Mega-Clubs. And 2 x 'Wild Card' entries each season, to ensure none of the big-hitting teams miss out even if they have rubbish seasons. What a stitch-up. Time the EFL considered breaking away from UEFA and FIFA. WE invented the game. Working folk in the English towns and cities. They're stealing it from us.
The Poland squad and its entourage flew into the UK today, and guess what they brought with them? Clues; It begins with C. It ends with lockdown and worse. It's out of control in Poland (400 per day mortality at the moment). Three Polish squad players have had positive tests. The test itself is unreliable in the early days after contracting the virus. 30,000 per day on average is the infection rate in Poland right now. Letting this fixture go ahead is utter insanity.
The last two rounds of Money League games are intending to have gates upto 10k, likewise an FA Cup semi on the 17/18th April. Yet non-league cannot have 50 supporters in their grounds this weekend. How do you work that one out?!
My wife is from Brasil so I take more than a passing interest in my third home. Bolsonaro is on his fourth Health Minister since the pandemic started. The man is a buffoon.
Fans allowed back at Premier League games are window dressing - performing monkeys for the benefit of TV coverage. Foreign Networks are getting tired of fake crowd noises and images of empty stands covered in corporate dust-sheets. How much gushing will there be from TV commentators about how great it is to have fans back? Plenty. Nobody in authority within the game gives a rats arse about non league football. You can't sell it to TV audiences in the Far East, so they couldn't give a toss what happens to it. Just slap on an arbitrary rule, say it's to protest people from the virus, and let hundreds of Clubs go to the wall.
