Charlton have used 27 players in the league squad so far this season who are still at the Club. Take 16 away and you're left with 11 players. Chuck in a few academy kids and you've got just enough for a team to run out each weekend and get battered 8-0 in League One. (not forgetting the whopping points deduction). Or maybe play some more even contests in the 10th tier somewhere.
The top two leagues in France will not be completed now; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52460468 And UEFA has asked European Leagues to decide by May 25th if their seasons will be completed or not; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52456304 In my opinion the Premier League Clubs who have got their players travelling to training now (hardly in compliance with lockdown rules) are kidding themselves and the Public. Hundreds of people per day are still dying of Coronavirus. Health service staff have been worked into the ground over this past six weeks. They must be physically and emotionally exhausted, and vulnerable to terrible post-traumatic stress. They should not be asked to run around looking after millionaire footballers for the benefit of the mega-wealthy Premier League. Neither should the Police or low paid support staff. If the snouts in the PL trough want to get football matches going, they should pay 100% of the cost of private medical, support and security services, AND make certain those private providers are fully complying with PPE and social distancing requirements.
France, Belgium and Holland cancelling their leagues will hopefully put pressure on us to do the right thing. The whole situation and efforts to begin are crazy. ALL because of putting money before lives.
The Premier League will be thinking that the less football there is elswhere, the bigger the audience for their product. They will be the last ones to give up on the notion - if they do give up. #moneybeforelives
Project Restart is running into a few difficulties... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52443200 The first difficulty is with its name. Project Gravytrain Project Greed Project Pisstake Project Piggies Project Cash-in Project Heartless Project Regradless would all be better titles. Matches played at a selected number of "approved and sealed" venues? So that means The Emirates , Spurs new ground , The Etihad , Old Trafford , Wembley ... ...and the London Stadium (social distance between fans & pitch no problem at that one). NOT Anfield though - thanks to the Atletico debacle. That's going to be really fair to all the teams involved isn't it. Players strong-armed into cooperating - yeah, I can see that happening. Corona tests before and after each game, Mass police presence in a futile attempt to discourage fans from gathering. (the attitude of many who see themselves as 'hardcore' supporters will be "f*ck the rules. If my team is playing there, I'm going") Morons fighting each other in the streets and venting 6 weeks of frustration by kicking some coppers. An incitement to riot. For pity's sake. How much sweating and spitting and vapour droplet fog from blowing, out-of-shape players is there going to be five minutes after kick-off, never mind by full time. What kind of football are we going to enjoy, broadcast "free-to-air" (I think not) from a vacuum sealed stadium with 60,000 empty seats and the subs benches populated by stupid haircuts in expensive face masks and trendy headphones, looking about as enthusiastic as a teenage shoplifter on her 85th appearance in court. Just drop this whole idiotic, inconsiderate, insensitive, ill-judged idea.
That sounds like a great idea. Wherever the games are played common sense dictates there should be only 1 game every 4 days - since (we are told) the virus can only live for a maximum of 72 hours on any surface. But we know that Project Gravytrain isn't anything to do with the virus. It's about making money. So three games per day. That's SIX Premier League teams and all their support staff in one location in one day. Something like 200 people I would guess. And that doesn't include the workers who are based at the venue rather than those travelling to it to play a match. Or the camera crews and Journo's. And the PL seriously expects every fan of those Clubs to just stay at home and watch on TV? How many Police road blocks and detention vans are going to be needed? And how much risk of infection are the Police going to be exposed to? The Rozzers should come out right now and say they're having nothing to do with it. Surely if they don't sign it off as safe the whole idea is dead in the water. Our Police are not supposed to be susceptible to having their arms twisted by money men.
Even the Mayor of Liverpool (no, not Derek Hatton) agrees that re-starting the Premier League is a ridiculous idea; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52484530 Personally I agree with him. Liverpool should be crowned Champions. They are 25 points clear, needing only 2 more wins. They are not going to be caught. But resuming football now, in the Premier League or the EFL Leagues, will be putting money before lives.
It strikes me that they are making one set of rules for the Premier League, then another set of rules for the other 3 divisions, that is wrong.
Unsurprisingly, cracks are beginning to show in the drive to get the Premier League re-started. All of the current bottom 6 Clubs have expressed unhappiness at the plan to hold all the remaining fixtures at Neutral grounds, including Brighton (who have 5 home games among their 9 still to play). Although I think the whole 'Project Restart' business is ill-conceived, I cannot really see why Clubs would be unhappy about having to play at neutral stadiums. Home advantage surely only exists because your fans get behind you. All of the remaining PL fixtures will be played behind closed doors. A reluctance to travel might be a reason I guess, but away teams will have to do that anyway. The sad fact is that these matches will barely be worth watching. Players will be physically unfit. Their heads will be completely scrambled by all the strangeness of recent months. Many won't be able to focus. Players will be afraid of catching the virus and passing it on to their families. Players will be afraid of getting injured because they are out of shape. There will be absolutely zero atmosphere inside big, empty, echoing stadiums. The intensity, the passion and the joy of celebration will all be missing. These games will be no better than training sessions. Never mind all the headaches of policing groups or even crowds of fans who will gather outside grounds, some of them drunk and looking for trouble. If clashes happen around people's homes, it is going to cause extreme anxiety and probably a hostile backlash. That kind of behaviour will be exactly what long suffering lockdown observers DON'T want to see.
Unsurprisingly, lower placed Premier League Clubs are now saying they would be more willing to cooperate with "Project Restart" if the threat of relegation is removed. Assuming they get their way, about 80% of the very little entertainment value still remaining from televising "restart" fixtures will be gone. There will be nothing to play for except deciding who finishes in the top 4 (as Liverpool are obviously going to win it). So out of the 90 odd matches still to play, about 60 will be dead rubbers. Whoopie. I can't wait to tune in to those. My position on the 2019-20 season is still that it should be declared finished now. I am happy to go with an idea posted recently, that there could be promotion only and no relegation. This would probably resolve matters with a minimum of legal challenges, though it will require a larger number of relegations in 2 or 3 future seasons in order to re-balance the number of Clubs in each league. But my agreement with the idea of no relegations (in any league) this season assumes that there will be no more games played. For the safety of players, fans and everybody else involved. The idea of all those Premier League bottom half teams playing each other in empty, neutral stadiums with nothing to lose (except maybe their lives or the lives of their loved ones to coronavirus) in order to entertain us, does not appeal to me at all. Even if relegation does end up still being a threat to add spice to those games, the potential price in lives is still too high.
I thought the Aston Villa Chairman made a good point today; What happens if a Premier League player tests positive for COVID19 after a match? Presumably, both match-day squads + coaches, officials & anybody else who was pitch-side will need to self-isolate for 7 or 14 days (along with their families if they have been in contact with them in the meantime). It will only take 2 or 3 positive tests to shoot 'Project Restart' down in flames. Unless of course they are going to bend the lockdown rules. I think the expression is "move the goalposts". And I hear Clubs who won't agree to Neutral Venues are being coerced with dark warnings about the season being abandoned if they don't give in. So be it. A field day for the lawyers is a lesser evil than losing your life or that of a loved one to the virus, in the name of entertainment. Stand your ground and call their bluff on this - or they will hold the same threat over you whenever they want to get their own way.
Looks like the 'Project Restart' bulldozer is set to roll over any opposition. The PL needs 14 votes out of the 20 Clubs to force Restart through. That will be the Clubs in positions 1 to 14 then - those who are safe from the threat of relegation. No players will be forced to play in unsafe conditions, we are told. And who decides whether conditions are safe? Why, the Premier League of course. Players who disagree will be told they are wrong, then coerced into playing. If they catch the virus it will tough luck. I wonder what Gordon Taylor will have to say about that? The PL will doubtless be legally bulletproof. Full training begins on May 18th (11 days time). Games are due to begin mid June, to finish the season by the end of July.
