The Premier League Thread

Good on Troy Deeney btw for saying he won't be taking part in training.

 

I meant to add once the season resumes. The players will be in quarantine and contact with other people will be very minimal.

 

Also, from 748 tests on PL players and staff, only 6 positive tests. That's 0.8% of the tests being positive. I'd say there's a greater than 0.8% chance that a player sustains an injury that keeps them out for 2 months.

 

We don't know the true percentage as we don't know how many are players and how many are staff.

 

Ian Woan AM has tested positive.....speedy recovery Ian

 

Sustaining a season ending injury would qualify as an industrial injury, something that is a sad but acceptable fact of life, in football. A known risk that players acknowledge.
Catching the coronavirus, in a quarantine situation, that the person wouldn’t otherwise have been in, could open a massive can of worms, which is why a legal challenge can’t be ruled out if the club consider that the loss of that player led to relegation.

 

Be interesting to see if the other two clubs follow suit in announcing it.

 

I am sure it will all come out, big thing to keep secret.

 

Although if the government are claiming it's roughly 1 in 400 currently, 6 in 748 is relatively high*





(*I know this is a very small sample size so statistically insignificant)

 

Watford is another one,1 player and 2 staff positive.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52726278

 

Coronavirus could keep them out for two months or more. Aside from the initial illness many people are fatigued long term and the long term impact of the virus on the body e.g. lung capacity is poorly understood.

 

The impact on players who are BAME clearly needs to be taken into consideration, as the people in this group are the ones who statistically suffering more than other groups.
Four times as likely to catch the virus and twice as likely to suffer long term effects, based on current information.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-to-research-covid-19s-impact-on-bame-players

 

The Premier League’s medical adviser, Mark Gillett, said that the league would be monitoring the risk to BAME players, dependent on more data emerging.

“We will do everything we can to mitigate against [the risk] … as more information becomes available,” he said. “But the risk in young fit athletes is still very small and I think that is an important factor.”

Thats a lie, if you did everything you could you would cancel the rest of the season...

 

At this point, the data is all still so inconclusive that it is a gamble.

I dont think it's right, personally. Until the full scientific picture is built with accurate data about the impact of the virus, why are they risking it?

In the public sphere, essential workers are needed, so the gamble is worth it. But football falls into the cinema/pubs/bars category of not worth the gamble

 

Contact training could be approved this week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/52747574

 

Shame it's not contact tracing ready to go!

 

If it's all about getting people back to work then may as well allow pubs to open if they're happy to test their staff.

 

The obvious answer is that it's financially beneficial to restart the season. If the Premier League's TV contract was insured, and consequently the teams weren't on the hook for the TV revenues, they'd have called off the season a month ago.

So long as it doesn't go completely pear-shaped, it's also a political win. The PL is probably the most visible single institution in the country, and while the empty stands will signal that things aren't normal, there is significant value in things being normal enough for major sports to return. So long as it doesn't go completely pear-shaped.

 

If the season was officially ended and they then played these games as friendlies to keep the public entertained on television, would they be so keen to play them?

 

Luis Enrique: Spain boss says football without fans 'sadder than dancing with your sister' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52752877