Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Demitri_C on September 25, 2024, 05:07:56 PM
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Apologies if there is a thread on this as could not see it but the talk of player strikes, as they feel too many games no days.
Sons the latest to speak out saying they are not robots and there are too many games. Ange supports him. What do you think about this?
I mean from a villa point of view it does probably make sense because as you worry about all your players- but ones like watkins and konsa for example. They just played in the euros now have to play extra games for CL as they have increased the volume of games by two. I do feel for the players as its a awful lot of games these days.
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Sure. And they should definitely cut back on all those lucratives tours of the US and the Far East out of concern for the welfare of their players.
Once those stop, let's then bring the chat round to the proper matches.
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No.
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The time to worry as a top flight club is when you aren't playing a lot of games as it usually means you're shit.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals.
Job done.
That's the only increase footballers in our country have had in a long long time, without them, the number of games has reduced as the league reduced from being a 22 team league.
Clubs need to manage their resource better, and if they don't let the players go on strike and the clubs can be fined and deducted points for not fulfilling fixtures.
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The number of internationals is pretty much the same as it was 40 odd years ago. The issue is players want max wages so clubs have to do tours etc. When we had this discussion on another thread I said it's a vicious circle.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals.
Job done.
That's the only increase footballers in our country have had in a long long time, without them, the number of games has reduced as the league reduced from being a 22 team league.
Clubs need to manage their resource better, and if they don't let the players go on strike and the clubs can be fined and deducted points for not fulfilling fixtures.
I wasnt round in the 80s and before. What were the games like then? Would you say they were as demanding as they are now?
I know the european cup was two legged knock out games but was it more games than our current Cl format?
I know the actual english league as ut was known then was bigger than what it was now though
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There were far fewer games in the European competitions, slightly more cup games due to abolition of replays and some two leg rounds, and four more league games during most of the eighties. Internationals about the same as PWS has said.
Players played a far higher percentage of the time though, as there weren't many sub, smaller squads, and rotation was unknown.
In short, they have nothing to moan about, though I won't lose sleep if the World Club Cup gets abolished. It would have been decent a few years ago when South American clubs could compete, but boring as fuck now.
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Players were nowhere near as finely tuned as they are now. On the flipside, challenges that are now a clear red were common place back then and were often not even given as a foul. And pitches were woeful, you'd have to go a fair way down the non league pyramid now to find pitches as bad as most top flight pitches were back then. And you only had one sub per game. Unless you were dead you stayed on.
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We are loving being back in the Champions League but any objective observer can see the format to basically reduce 36 teams to 24 is ridiculous and purely for commercial purpose!
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We are loving being back in the Champions League but any objective observer can see the format to basically reduce 36 teams to 24 is ridiculous and purely for commercial purpose!
I don't think son and ange would be complaining if spurs were in the CL though...
They probably feel spurs have a right to be in CL
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Less matches means you won't live and die on H&V. You don't want that, do you?
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No is the simple answer. Emery himself prefers the games and scales back the training to allow recovery . football thrives on 2 games a week. Enjoy it and stop sounding like Klopp
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We are loving being back in the Champions League but any objective observer can see the format to basically reduce 36 teams to 24 is ridiculous and purely for commercial purpose!
Not that different to the old format, in which 24/32 teams qualified for European knock-out games. Albeit, eight of them dropped into a different competition.
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I doubt many man city players play anywhere near as many minutes compared to 30 or 40 years ago.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
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I just looked and in the 81-82 season we played 65 games including the European Cup final. We played 65 games last season.
Squad sizes were a lot smaller 40 years ago, pitches were a lot worse so had to take more out of the players.
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Count me in the ditch Internationals. Dont care for them
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I've had my say on this a few times now but in short yes there are too many games, getting rid of pointless games (like the club world cup) should be a priority and, more importantly, we should do a lot more to ensure a proper summer break and pre-season is possible. The start and end of the season have both been allowed to drift and, with the silly pre-season tournaments, pre-season serves a completely different purpose now.
Comparisons to the past aren't really all that helpful because the physical demands of football have sky-rocketed in the last 20 years.
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Yes the physical demands are greater. But they are better looked after, more comfortable travel and stop overs. Everything is done for them so there are no distractions.
Does it take the edge off performance ? On occasion yes but it's the same for all teams.
Anyway I hate the two week international break when we have no Villa game and Summer is unbearable.
71/72. We played 3 games in 4 days over Easter
Wrexham (A) on Friday, Swansea(H) on Saturday, Bristol Rovers(H) on Monday.
The team was Cumbes, Wright, Aitken, Nicholl, Ross, Turnbull, McMahon, Rioch, Anderson, Lochhead, Graydon for all three, apart from Vowden replacing Rioch against Bristol Rovers.
https://www.11v11.com/teams/aston-villa/tab/matches/season/1972/
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I've had my say on this a few times now but in short yes there are too many games, getting rid of pointless games (like the club world cup) should be a priority and, more importantly, we should do a lot more to ensure a proper summer break and pre-season is possible. The start and end of the season have both been allowed to drift and, with the silly pre-season tournaments, pre-season serves a completely different purpose now.
Comparisons to the past aren't really all that helpful because the physical demands of football have sky-rocketed in the last 20 years.
I don't think they have. Players are fitter than ever before, have better diet than ever before, have better medical treatment than ever before, get kicked less than ever before and play on better pitches than ever before. Even if they're required to cover more ground, as you suggest, I think it's more than offset, even before you take into account that they get subbed and rested all the time, now.
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There are too many games for me. I found a stream for last night, watched the first 15 minutes and then thought 'life's too fucking short to watch our reserves struggle at Wycombe'. I can't remember what I did instead, but I don't regret it.
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Too many games. Knock international matches on the head, nobody cares about them.
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I've had my say on this a few times now but in short yes there are too many games, getting rid of pointless games (like the club world cup) should be a priority and, more importantly, we should do a lot more to ensure a proper summer break and pre-season is possible. The start and end of the season have both been allowed to drift and, with the silly pre-season tournaments, pre-season serves a completely different purpose now.
Comparisons to the past aren't really all that helpful because the physical demands of football have sky-rocketed in the last 20 years.
I don't think they have. Players are fitter than ever before, have better diet than ever before, have better medical treatment than ever before, get kicked less than ever before and play on better pitches than ever before. Even if they're required to cover more ground, as you suggest, I think it's more than offset, even before you take into account that they get subbed and rested all the time, now.
Its wierd because alot of them are as fot as paper even with those resources e.g keinan davis.
For me they should allow bigger squads then for europe and domestic league. Only solution
I bet the players complaining wont be happy when someone else takes their starting spot in the team.
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That just sounds like it would be even more difficult to compete with the cartel clubs who can afford to have thirty or forty megastars knocking about.
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Bigger squads means more on wages which means the 'big' clubs will want even more games that are lucrative. And means everyone outside of the top clubs are left even further behind. And we'd do well to remember that up until last season we were one of those also ran clubs that are only playing 41 or 42 games a season.
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I just looked and in the 81-82 season we played 65 games including the European Cup final. We played 65 games last season.
Squad sizes were a lot smaller 40 years ago, pitches were a lot worse so had to take more out of the players.
It's interesting how players get "injured" more nowadays and what we used to call a sprain now gets a more technical term and 3 months off for the player. game is gone.
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Bigger squads means more on wages which means the 'big' clubs will want even more games that are lucrative. And means everyone outside of the top clubs are left even further behind. And we'd do well to remember that up until last season we were one of those also ran clubs that are only playing 41 or 42 games a season.
This is the thing the cartel clubs all wanted a super league that would have been a shit load of games and more travel. It does seem a but ridiculous
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Erm, let's lead a revolution and start a European breakaway league! Only really big clubs need apply.
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Think some people are confusing games with "income maximisation opportunities"
The money mad fuckers running the game want fewer games for which they can't jack up the prices and more sell-out "spectaculars that they can flog off to Sky/Amazin/TNT et al.
Hence the change from a 42 game First Division to the 38 game EPL and the emasculation of domestic cup competitions to carve out more mid-week nights for spurious Euro competitions.
The same is true with international competitions UEFA and FIFA have expanded the Euros and the World Cup to generate more income and now we've got the recently announced World Club Competition.
The genie's out of the bottle.
I'm not sure it's going to go back in.
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Think some people are confusing games with "income maximisation opportunities"
The money mad fuckers running the game want fewer games for which they can't jack up the prices and more sell-out "spectaculars" that they can flog off to Sky/Amazin/TNT et al.
Hence the change from a 42 game First Division to the 38 game EPL and the emasculation of domestic cup competitions to carve out more mid-week nights for spurious Euro competitions.
The same is true with international competitions UEFA and FIFA have expanded the Euros and the World Cup to generate more income and now we've got the recently announced World Club Competition.
The genie's out of the bottle.
I'm not sure it's going to go back in.
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Apologies for the double post.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
Really? Do you like them? I think they just take the players away from clubs, for largely meaningless games.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
Really? Do you like them? I think they just take the players away from clubs, for largely meaningless games.
He especially loves the under 21 games 🙂
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
Really? Do you like them? I think they just take the players away from clubs, for largely meaningless games.
Tell the San Marino lads that their win the other day was "meaningless".
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If there are too many matches - they dont come from the domestic tournements.
Its also off that the clubs that moan the most have squads designed for it. Rodri gets injuried, and on the BBC there is an article on who they can buy.
Whilst most clubs just have to live with losing there best players for a season.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
Really? Do you like them? I think they just take the players away from clubs, for largely meaningless games.
Tell the San Marino lads that their win the other day was "meaningless".
Thats a good point - a certain amount of humality is needed. I think we spend too many weekends away - but if I raise not seeing the in-laws as a solution - theres outrage. Similar thing in football - sometimes you need to do things for the greater good.
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Moaning bunch of( fit in any word you wish too)
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals.
Job done.
That's the only increase footballers in our country have had in a long long time, without them, the number of games has reduced as the league reduced from being a 22 team league.
Clubs need to manage their resource better, and if they don't let the players go on strike and the clubs can be fined and deducted points for not fulfilling fixtures.
I wasnt round in the 80s and before. What were the games like then? Would you say they were as demanding as they are now?
I know the european cup was two legged knock out games but was it more games than our current Cl format?
I know the actual english league as ut was known then was bigger than what it was now though
It was less organised. Some teams used to play after the final games had ended due to congestion. Also have a look at Boro in 96/97 season, got to both cup finals and in those days there were replays for pretty much every knockout round including the league cup final so they had to cram in about 16 games in final two months of the season.
At least now everything finishes on time for every club. However that means seasons stretch into June now with the internationals. What they should do is introduce a rule that for none tournament summers no one plays past June 1st for club matches and then you wrap the internationals up by 8th June so all players get a month off before pre season starts and then you can start the next season a week earlier.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
Really? Do you like them? I think they just take the players away from clubs, for largely meaningless games.
Tell the San Marino lads that their win the other day was "meaningless".
Your win was meaningless
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I reckon internationals are an important source of income for a lot of football associations around the world.
After years of us slagging off fans of the Sky clubs and their fans for their attitudes to domestic cups, not bothering to watch trophy presentations, not giving a shit about the rest of the leagues etc it's taken us less than 2 years of being decent, 1 CL match and 0 trophies for nearly 30 years to be not much different.
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I just looked and in the 81-82 season we played 65 games including the European Cup final. We played 65 games last season.
Squad sizes were a lot smaller 40 years ago, pitches were a lot worse so had to take more out of the players.
Really interesting looking at the schedule of 81/82 season. The first league game didn't take place until Sat 29th August.
Then two midweek league rounds in September along with European cup which of course was straight knock out in those times.
We played nine european games to win the tournament whereas now we play one fewer just in an endless group stage so that's straight away the first problem.
All the league cup games are listed for some reason as Sat 30th Jan 1982 so not sure what the timeline was for that season.
Xmas matches were 19th December and then 28th Dec so I presume Weather was disruptive that season.
The biggest issue of course was in those times you'd have one international on a Wednesday perhaps every other month and then straight back into club action on the Saturday. You lose so many weekends in a season playing two internationals every month and the nations league has to be the most pointless tournament around, lose three weekends up to December having to play that and all it really leads to is some nations getting a backdoor route into play offs if they need it.
Season ended on Fri 21st May (I presume put forward 24 hours to help us for the European final which was nice of the authorities) and then European cup final was 26th May.
That's the ideal schedule to me.
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I reckon internationals are an important source of income for a lot of football associations around the world.
After years of us slagging off fans of the Sky clubs and their fans for their attitudes to domestic cups, not bothering to watch trophy presentations, not giving a shit about the rest of the leagues etc it's taken us less than 2 years of being decent, 1 CL match and 0 trophies for nearly 30 years to be not much different.
Well that's one of the reasons they are successful because they don't give a shit, the days of being nice Aston Villa are over hopefully
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I just looked and in the 81-82 season we played 65 games including the European Cup final. We played 65 games last season.
Squad sizes were a lot smaller 40 years ago, pitches were a lot worse so had to take more out of the players.
Really interesting looking at the schedule of 81/82 season. The first league game didn't take place until Sat 29th August.
Then two midweek league rounds in September along with European cup which of course was straight knock out in those times.
We played nine european games to win the tournament whereas now we play one fewer just in an endless group stage so that's straight away the first problem.
All the league cup games are listed for some reason as Sat 30th Jan 1982 so not sure what the timeline was for that season.
Xmas matches were 19th December and then 28th Dec so I presume Weather was disruptive that season.
The biggest issue of course was in those times you'd have one international on a Wednesday perhaps every other month and then straight back into club action on the Saturday. You lose so many weekends in a season playing two internationals every month and the nations league has to be the most pointless tournament around, lose three weekends up to December having to play that and all it really leads to is some nations getting a backdoor route into play offs if they need it.
Season ended on Fri 21st May (I presume put forward 24 hours to help us for the European final which was nice of the authorities) and then European cup final was 26th May.
That's the ideal schedule to me.
I remember our game against the Albion on 12 December being cancelled because of the snow - I came back from university in Sheffield that day and even in those pre internet days knew the game was off. I can’t recall the Boxing Day cancellation though.
The Swansea home game on 21 May was played on a Friday night not because the league wanted to help us but because the cup final was the following day IIRC.
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Ditch the tours, ditch the club world cup, ditch half the internationals
Absolutely not.
Really? Do you like them? I think they just take the players away from clubs, for largely meaningless games.
All the stuff that PWS said. No, I personally couldn't give a toss about most international games. Even the ones I do give a toss about, I don't really care about the results.
But without them and the income that they generate, the football structure of scores of countries without massive TV and sponsorship deals does not exist.
It's akin to suggesting that Villa might have a few more supporters if fewer clubs existed, so let's just abolish the whole pyramid below Championship level. Not everything in football has to happen just to offer a slight marginal gain for the richest few clubs at the top of it.
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Yes there are too many games, without doubt the likelihood of injuries increases because of the number , speed of the game but more importantly the state of the pitches they play on.
Also it’s boring.
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You've lost me with the "state of the pitches" comment. It's basically a carpet nowadays.
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When Man City won Champions League, League and FA Cup the other year, the most appearances anyone made was Rodri with 56. Russell Osman played 66 games for Ipswich in 1980/81. And still found time to present "House of Games".
No Man City first team players play in every FA Cup and League Cup game and never get rested in the league.
So, yes, there are probably more games, but players don't play in as many as before.
The moaning about too many games is just the entitled clubs not wanting to have to bother slumming it in domestic cups, so they can spend more time cashing in with Saudi and US tours. Don't fall for it.
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You've lost me with the "state of the pitches" comment. It's basically a carpet nowadays.
Carpet burns mate, it’s a problem
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You've lost me with the "state of the pitches" comment. It's basically a carpet nowadays.
Carpet burns mate, it’s a problem
That Carlos will use any excuse. ☹️
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To be fair we know first hand that it is possible to have a player injure themselves on a sprinkler so lets not dismiss the risks of playing on modern pitches too quickly (ok it was Jenas who could've been injured by a strong breeze but still).
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You've lost me with the "state of the pitches" comment. It's basically a carpet nowadays.
That is the problem, the impact on joints and the fact that studs or blades often stick.
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You've lost me with the "state of the pitches" comment. It's basically a carpet nowadays.
That is the problem, the impact on joints and the fact that studs or blades often stick.
There's also a lot more water on the pitches than there used to be.
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I still reckon you'd get injured less often now than on the quagmires of the olden days, but I could be convinced otherwise if anyone has evidence.
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To be fair we know first hand that it is possible to have a player injure themselves on a sprinkler so lets not dismiss the risks of playing on modern pitches too quickly (ok it was Jenas who could've been injured by a strong breeze but still).
Out for three months with a groin injury after texting.
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To be fair we know first hand that it is possible to have a player injure themselves on a sprinkler so lets not dismiss the risks of playing on modern pitches too quickly (ok it was Jenas who could've been injured by a strong breeze but still).
Out for three months with a groin injury after texting.
He only got the move here by sexting, McLeish was flattered to be getting any kind of attention.
On the pitches, the few times I've gone onto our pitch it felt rock hard, more like an old astro turf pitch than grass.
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I still reckon you'd get injured less often now than on the quagmires of the olden days, but I could be convinced otherwise if anyone has evidence.
Quagmires not great for skill but low impact, soft landings, studs slip through the surface.
I used to love very wet pitches, hated hard ones , astro turf awful and the modern pitches are energy sapping.
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I still reckon you'd get injured less often now than on the quagmires of the olden days, but I could be convinced otherwise if anyone has evidence.
Quagmires not great for skill but low impact, soft landings, studs slip through the surface.
I used to love very wet pitches, hated hard ones , astro turf awful and the modern pitches are energy sapping.
I loved the old astro turf to play on, though I think along with loving the North Stand I might be the only person that did.
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I still reckon you'd get injured less often now than on the quagmires of the olden days, but I could be convinced otherwise if anyone has evidence.
Quagmires not great for skill but low impact, soft landings, studs slip through the surface.
I used to love very wet pitches, hated hard ones , astro turf awful and the modern pitches are energy sapping.
I loved the old astro turf to play on, though I think along with loving the North Stand I might be the only person that did.
I played on shale pitches up north, if you scraped your knee you had to scrub out the red dirt.
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I just looked and in the 81-82 season we played 65 games including the European Cup final. We played 65 games last season.
Squad sizes were a lot smaller 40 years ago, pitches were a lot worse so had to take more out of the players.
Really interesting looking at the schedule of 81/82 season. The first league game didn't take place until Sat 29th August.
Then two midweek league rounds in September along with European cup which of course was straight knock out in those times.
We played nine european games to win the tournament whereas now we play one fewer just in an endless group stage so that's straight away the first problem.
All the league cup games are listed for some reason as Sat 30th Jan 1982 so not sure what the timeline was for that season.
Xmas matches were 19th December and then 28th Dec so I presume Weather was disruptive that season.
The biggest issue of course was in those times you'd have one international on a Wednesday perhaps every other month and then straight back into club action on the Saturday. You lose so many weekends in a season playing two internationals every month and the nations league has to be the most pointless tournament around, lose three weekends up to December having to play that and all it really leads to is some nations getting a backdoor route into play offs if they need it.
Season ended on Fri 21st May (I presume put forward 24 hours to help us for the European final which was nice of the authorities) and then European cup final was 26th May.
That's the ideal schedule to me.
Midweek used to be for internationals as well. Hence the week blackout now for 2 matches.
Weather was wretched in Dec 1981 - first time I recall a White Christmas
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No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.
Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.
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Yeah but Don't You Want Me was at number one and Villa were the reigning champions, I'd swap a bit of gentrification for that. Just for a bit, mind. You'd start to miss avocado and sourdough.
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No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.
Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.
Mandated matchday squad places for club-trained players would be a far better way to ensure meaningful game time for academy players than having a near complete flip of the squad for a few cup games every season. When they went up to 20man squads they should've added a caveat that those spots (at the very least) were only for academy/club trained players. Personally I'd take it further and go for 3 or 4. Keeping a squad of 25 full international players happy should be really difficult and should serve as a bit of a leveller between the ultra-rich and smaller clubs who just can't afford to maintain a squad like that.
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No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.
Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.
Mandated matchday squad places for club-trained players would be a far better way to ensure meaningful game time for academy players than having a near complete flip of the squad for a few cup games every season. When they went up to 20man squads they should've added a caveat that those spots (at the very least) were only for academy/club trained players. Personally I'd take it further and go for 3 or 4. Keeping a squad of 25 full international players happy should be really difficult and should serve as a bit of a leveller between the ultra-rich and smaller clubs who just can't afford to maintain a squad like that.
This would be very sensible, but would really rub up against the daft PSR rules that we saw in the summer where you have to sell home-grown players to stay financially sound.
Tricky for us to both sell Kellyman and Iroegbunam to avoid a points deduction and keep them around for our mandated club-trained squad places.
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No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.
Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.
Mandated matchday squad places for club-trained players would be a far better way to ensure meaningful game time for academy players than having a near complete flip of the squad for a few cup games every season. When they went up to 20man squads they should've added a caveat that those spots (at the very least) were only for academy/club trained players. Personally I'd take it further and go for 3 or 4. Keeping a squad of 25 full international players happy should be really difficult and should serve as a bit of a leveller between the ultra-rich and smaller clubs who just can't afford to maintain a squad like that.
This would be very sensible, but would really rub up against the daft PSR rules that we saw in the summer where you have to sell home-grown players to stay financially sound.
Tricky for us to both sell Kellyman and Iroegbunam to avoid a points deduction and keep them around for our mandated club-trained squad places.
Indeed, that's one of the reasons I'd like to see it happen. I know it helped us massively but I'm fundamentally against teams using their academy as cash farms and I'd much prefer to see both of those players in our squad, Kellyman in particular is one I really hoped we'd see come good.
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No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.
Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.
Yes. You can also factor in the increased amount of subs that can be used and are used. If game totals are lowered in the Prem, just watch the amount of friendlies increase in far off places.
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Yes, there probably are too many games if you win everything.
But football was never designed for one team to win everything.
So f*ck off Man City*.
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But despite Ange Postecoglou welcoming European football being part of Tottenham's fixture list again, he does feel the congested schedule needs to be addressed.
Spurs play Manchester United just three days after tonight's game, and Postecoglou said: "I've spoken before that I think we're getting to a dangerous level of what our expectations are around players. They don't get a break between seasons anymore.
"It's going to get to a point where we're not going to have the best players out here playing and even worse probably breaking down for various reasons."
Spiurs captain Son Heung-min feels players "are not being looked after" with the number of games they are being asked to play.
On if he thinks players may take matters into their own hands, Postecoglou added: "They're the ones most affected so you'd understand if as a collective they are thinking about how much of this are we going to continually not have a say in?"
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou believes it will serve his side well in all competitions to be back playing European football.
“I said last year there was a gap in our calendar that didn’t help us at certain times of the year — not having that regular football and the challenge of playing different types of opposition and exposing the squad,” he said.
“The worst thing was sitting around watching other teams. It didn’t sit well with me, so I’m a big backer of European competitions.”
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But despite Ange Postecoglou welcoming European football being part of Tottenham's fixture list again, he does feel the congested schedule needs to be addressed.
Spurs play Manchester United just three days after tonight's game, and Postecoglou said: "I've spoken before that I think we're getting to a dangerous level of what our expectations are around players. They don't get a break between seasons anymore.
"It's going to get to a point where we're not going to have the best players out here playing and even worse probably breaking down for various reasons."
Spiurs captain Son Heung-min feels players "are not being looked after" with the number of games they are being asked to play.
On if he thinks players may take matters into their own hands, Postecoglou added: "They're the ones most affected so you'd understand if as a collective they are thinking about how much of this are we going to continually not have a say in?"
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou believes it will serve his side well in all competitions to be back playing European football.
“I said last year there was a gap in our calendar that didn’t help us at certain times of the year — not having that regular football and the challenge of playing different types of opposition and exposing the squad,” he said.
“The worst thing was sitting around watching other teams. It didn’t sit well with me, so I’m a big backer of European competitions.”
22 May 2024 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c7224v4g8kro#:~:text=Newcastle%20beat%20Tottenham%205%2D4,after%20the%20Premier%20League%20ended.)
Newcastle beat Tottenham 5-4 on penalties in a post-season friendly in Australia - just three days after the Premier League ended.
The timing of the match, which was played in front of 78,419 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and finished 1-1 after normal time, had been called "madness" by former England and Newcastle striker Alan Shearer.
It went ahead despite concerns about the increasing workload being faced by players.
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It's no great shock that there's a bit of hypocrisy in there but he's right about the off-season break being worn away. Since the start of the world cup season there has been near constant football if you include international games and pre-season tournaments. It does need to be addressed and that means the season not starting at the beginning of August, not finishing in June and the summer games going back to being about team-building and fitness rather than cash-grab tours.
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I actually hope the Euros goes to 32 teams in next decade. The quality is already diluted by going to 24 teams but at least then you could just have top two going through in a 32 team format.
The biggest bonus from that is surely qualification getting streamlined as utterly pointless to have the current qualification process given ten of those in competition are the likes of Andorra, San Marino, Malta etc.
Just use the Nations league as the new qualifying process as no one decent is going to miss out with 32/52 qualifying.
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Simon Jordan rightly said go and have a word with your employer, Manchester City he means,he also commented that it doesn't affect 90%of players from the lower leagues
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Yes there are too many games. I’m knackered and skint and it’s not even Xmas yet.
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Fifa has named the 12 stadiums set to host the new-look Club World Cup in the United States next year.
The tournament, which will run from 15 June to 13 July 2025, is the first staging of an expanded 32-team competition.
Matches will be played across the US, with the final to take place at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, five miles from New York City.
The other venues are:
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
TQL Stadium, Cincinnati
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami
Geodis Park, Nashville
Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
Camping World Stadium, Orlando
Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando
Rose Bowl Stadium, Los Angeles
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Lumen Field, Seattle
Audi Field, Washington DC
Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid have all automatically qualified from Europe as the most recent winners of the Champions League in the last four-year cycle.
Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto and Benfica will also feature, thanks to their co-efficient rankings.
Six South American clubs and 12 teams from Asia, Africa and North America will make up the rest of the tournament, while a spot is given to one club from Oceania and another for the US as the host nation.
The Club World Cup had previously been an annual mid-season tournament which included six teams from seven worldwide confederations.
"In 2025 a new era for club football will kick off when Fifa stages the greatest, most inclusive and merit-based global club competition right here in the United States," said Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
Fifa's decision to expand the competition has drawn criticism from clubs and players, particularly after Uefa expanded the Champions League and Europa League group stages to include two further matches.
Global players' union Fifpro and the European Leagues body, which represents 39 leagues and 1,130 clubs in 33 countries, filed a joint complaint to the European Commission in July to protest Fifa's "abuse of dominance" in the game.
Two months earlier, Fifa rejected a claim that Fifpro and the World Leagues Association were not consulted over plans to expand the Club World Cup.
Manchester City midfielder Rodri, who will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, warned earlier this month that players were close to striking because of the congested fixture list.
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I think they had a point when the world cup was played in Qatar years ago. Doing that at Xmas in the middle of our season was ridiculous but money talks as we know.
But since then replays have gone in carabao so i think that helps. I just hope they dont reduce the league by 2 teams as i know there was talk of this happening years ago but nothing came of it thankfully
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Re the Club World Cup, there's still an Intercontinental Cup in Qatar in December, albeit the European champions will go straight into the final so will only play one match. The final will be against a team who will have played a semi final a few days earlier and, if it's the CONCACAF or CONMEBOL champions, a match a few days before that. So a bit of a shitshow really.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_FIFA_Intercontinental_Cup
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I think the Club World Cup itself gets to the heart of the question in this thread.On the one hand, it's a clear money grab from FIFA, on the other it's more football and as fans isn't this what we want? I'd ask Chelsea and Citeh fans how they feel about it but they've sold their soul so many times over there's not much point. I bet we'd like to qualify for the next one though.
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Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber says the current fixture schedule is "dangerous" and is a "big topic" in the dressing room.
The debate about the football calendar drew attention after Manchester City midfielder Rodri said players are close to going on strike due to the congested schedule.
Timber, who missed the majority of last season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, said he "totally agrees" with Rodri's comments.
The 23-year-old Dutch international added: "It's a big topic at the moment in dressing rooms, not only at City and Liverpool but also our dressing room.
"I didn't play last season, so I'm just enjoying playing right now - you won't hear me complaining - but I totally understand what they're saying."
Last week it was announced Spaniard Rodri would miss the rest of the season after rupturing his ACL during a 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
Asked on Monday if players are more at risk of a serious injury as a result of the schedule, Timber said: "Definitely. I honestly think it's a dangerous thing. Last week we played City and I think they played again two days later - that's too much."
City manager Pep Guardiola said any change to the calendar must be player-led, while Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said the players "voices need to be heard".
"It's a really good point," Timber added. "The players are speaking right now and let their voices be heard."
"It doesn't look like it's getting any less [busy] at the moment.
"We're just trying to be there every game to give our best, but it gets hard when the games keep coming and coming. Especially in England without having a winter break, it's really hard."
There will not be a winter break this season in the Premier League.
However, to avoid Christmas and New Year fixture congestion, the league will give more rest time to sides over three of the festive match rounds, with no club playing within 60 hours of another match.
In July, global players' union Fifpro said it would take legal action against Fifa over what it called an "abuse of dominance" in football.
The new Champions League format also means players face two extra games in the competition - and that could increase if a club doesn't finish in the top eight due to the play-offs added into the new group stage.
“That makes a difference," said Timber.
"You want to be in the top eight because you want the highest possible finish, but in this case it also makes a difference for your team in terms of resting.”
This season could potentially run until 13 July for some clubs, when next summer's expanded Club World Cup final concludes.
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Price of success 7 massive games in 21 days
It will be:Sunday 130pm , Wednesday745pm ,Saturday 530pm Wednesday 8pm , Saturday 3pm Tuesda 8pm , Saturday 530pm
30th, 2nd, 5th, 9th, 12th, 15th and 19th.
it’s exciting not being in FA Cup and Champions League means 3 extra games over this period.
Some players won’t be able to manage that and won’t be available for all the games.
There are also suspensions and injuries to consider.
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What I still don't understand that until yesterday we had played more premier league games than all our competitors.
And there's me thinking the premier league assisted in shuffling fixtures for their clubs playing in Europe......more fool me.
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We'd played more because Liverpool are in the League Cup Final so our match against them was brought forward. Nothing to do with us being in Europe.
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We'd played more because Liverpool are in the League Cup Final so our match against them was brought forward. Nothing to do with us being in Europe.
Actually it is. The 'first' choice reallocation date for the finalists was 16/04 (when Newcastle play Palace) but that clashes with the 2nd leg of the Champions League QFs and because both us and Liverpool had the chance to be in that our game was shifted forward instead.
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I don't think there is that's the price of success I would rather we played more games than less that means we are having a good season.
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Darren Woolley, correct as always.
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I don't think there is that's the price of success I would rather we played more games than less that means we are having a good season.
We have a minimum of 12 games remaining. Every one of us should be hoping this turns into 17.
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Too many games means less training, which most players prefer.
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Its actually worked out better for us that the liverpool game was moved forward. We get a long rest now for final push