John McGinn

[Bully2345]

I think limiting games in individual contracts is more likely than a strike. I don't know how they'd organise strike action, is it just clubs in europe, players who've played more than 50 games, everyone associated with a PFA?

It'd be hard to see someone in League two who has mortgage and a family to pay for showing that much sympathy with an elite player on £300k per week

[LeeB]

At the same time his employers are probably happy with the extra CL games, it helps them pay his current £180k a week and his rumoured new contract offer of £375k a week. Clubs will never agree to fewer games when players are after obscene wages. It's become a vicious circle.

In thrall to mammon.

[Baldy]

A squad with a good manager/coaching staff wins a league or cup and not a starting eleven.

If I was fringe player in the Man City squad I would be insulted by Rodri's comments and demand an apology. If Rodri needs a rest he can speak to Pep and give some other multi talented player in the squad a chance.

F***ing cry baby. 

[chrisw1]

Dominating all competitions domestically and going deep in Europe shouldn't be easy.  We shouldn't be compromising domestic competitions because Man City are finding it tricky to win everything.  They have the most expensively assembled squad in history and the fuckers should use it.

On a wider point, I agree there's probably too many games.  But the first thing that should give is European games.  If the workload is too high they should be reducing the amount of Champions League Games not increasing them.  And if clubs want to go and make millions on summer world tours and 'Club World Cups' they should do so at their own players risk, not by depriving Accrington Stanley of a replay that could give them a transformational payday.

I agree that at a push the leagues sizes could possibly be reduced a little, but no less than 18.  Why should domestic fans of 'the other 14' miss out because the glamour clubs are galavanting around Europe and on World Tours creaming in even more money to help them continue to keep their foot on the necks of the not so lucky?

Rotate your fucking glamour squads and leave our domestic game alone, you greedy, greedy fucking bastards.

[Drummond]

There are too many internationals.

The club World Cup is completely unnecessary.

FIFA want more of the pie, UEFA want more of the pie, the clubs do, the players do, National associations do.

I think it's a bit rich of players earning in excess of £100k per WEEK, to start complaining and threatening strikes, they need to talk to their clubs, and agree on how many games they'll play. They don't have to play and be available.

Historically, the Premier League had more teams, so more games, there were some internationals, and nobody complained. Part of it is that the marketing and publicity and press conferences etc has grown so much.

These players train for a couple of hours a day, and then have plenty of downtime. It's up to clubs and managers to get the workload right.

As for the club World Cup and all the internationals, nobody really cares do they?

[London Villan]

I bet some players in Man city's squad start fewer games than players did in the last 40 years... on average they start about 35-40 games a season...

[PeterWithesShin]

The new format for the 2025 Club World Cup is ridiculous. 32 sides in America for a month. Although according to some media there's been a lack of interest from TV companies.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5779549/2024/09/19/fifa-club-world-cup-broadcast-rights/

[paul_e]

There are too many internationals.

The club World Cup is completely unnecessary.

FIFA want more of the pie, UEFA want more of the pie, the clubs do, the players do, National associations do.

I think it's a bit rich of players earning in excess of £100k per WEEK, to start complaining and threatening strikes, they need to talk to their clubs, and agree on how many games they'll play. They don't have to play and be available.

Historically, the Premier League had more teams, so more games, there were some internationals, and nobody complained. Part of it is that the marketing and publicity and press conferences etc has grown so much.

These players train for a couple of hours a day, and then have plenty of downtime. It's up to clubs and managers to get the workload right.

As for the club World Cup and all the internationals, nobody really cares do they?

but that's really difficult to do. Imagine the reaction on here if the team tomorrow sees Tielemans, Konsa, Rogers, Martinez and Watkins a 'break' after a tough european match? Fans just about accept that sort of weakening of the team in domestic cups but do it in Europe or the league and people lose their shit if the team doesn't win.

I agree about the club world cup, I'd get rid of the european super cup and the charity shield as well, and I agree that there are far too many internationals and, more importantly, international windows.

This isn't about pandering to rich clubs and any loss of revenue that comes from reducing the number of games would need to be offset with better redistribution of wealth down the pyramid but, for me, what it would do is improve the quality of games and improve player welfare. I know it's easy to see footballers as pampered millionaires who only do a few hours a day in training but in comparison to most other sports they are massively overloaded (I have the same concern for Cricket by the way).

[Lucky Eddie]

Instead of paying them 200k a week pay them 100k a game and see if they'd still rather not play twice a week.

[VillaTim]

Should squad sizes be increased to say 35 players and by that i don't mean clubs go out and spend a lot more .

No, if anything changes around squads it should be to encourage more U21 players from the academy to be included so something like 3-4 players in the matchday 20 have to meet the club-trained criteria.

That's kind of what i meant , allow bigger squad sizes not through buying more players but utilising U21/U18 resource

[Dave]

Should squad sizes be increased to say 35 players and by that i don't mean clubs go out and spend a lot more .

No, if anything changes around squads it should be to encourage more U21 players from the academy to be included so something like 3-4 players in the matchday 20 have to meet the club-trained criteria.

That's kind of what i meant , allow bigger squad sizes not through buying more players but utilising U21/U18 resource

As the moment you have a squad of 25 players and then you can use as many youth players on top of that as you want. How does your suggestion improve on the current situation?

[PeterWithesShin]

Successful club have played loads of games all my time as a fan. I bet Liverpool back in the day would hit 60 a games a season at times. There's less domestic football now. Replays are ditched, even extra time in earlier rounds. Gone are the days of 3 or 4 replays. It's European competitions that have added back to it. And now the Club World Cup. But that only impacts a small number of the clubs in the professional game. Cutting more domestic games hits the smaller clubs that aren't having long cup runs or are in Europe. And that would have included us until Unai appeared.

[paul_e]

Should squad sizes be increased to say 35 players and by that i don't mean clubs go out and spend a lot more .

No, if anything changes around squads it should be to encourage more U21 players from the academy to be included so something like 3-4 players in the matchday 20 have to meet the club-trained criteria.

That's kind of what i meant , allow bigger squad sizes not through buying more players but utilising U21/U18 resource

As the moment you have a squad of 25 players and then you can use as many youth players on top of that as you want. How does your suggestion improve on the current situation?

That's why I specifically mentioned the matchday 20 rather than the overall squad, it would force teams to rotate the squad more if they wanted to maintain a 25man senior squad and, by focusing on club-trained players, would stop teams (like us) from cashing in on the youth players to offset new signings.

[VillaTim]

Should squad sizes be increased to say 35 players and by that i don't mean clubs go out and spend a lot more .

No, if anything changes around squads it should be to encourage more U21 players from the academy to be included so something like 3-4 players in the matchday 20 have to meet the club-trained criteria.

That's kind of what i meant , allow bigger squad sizes not through buying more players but utilising U21/U18 resource

As the moment you have a squad of 25 players and then you can use as many youth players on top of that as you want. How does your suggestion improve on the current situation?

I didn't know you could do that so as things stand i think the system is fine

[paul_e]

Successful club have played loads of games all my time as a fan. I bet Liverpool back in the day would hit 60 a games a season at times. There's less domestic football now. Replays are ditched, even extra time in earlier rounds. Gone are the days of 3 or 4 replays. It's European competitions that have added back to it. And now the Club World Cup. But that only impacts a small number of the clubs in the professional game. Cutting more domestic games hits the smaller clubs that aren't having long cup runs or are in Europe. And that would have included us until Unai appeared.

True but also largely irrelevant. The pace of the game now is incomparable to even the early years of the premier league. Can you imagine seeing someone like Mickey Quinn or Jan Molby playing now?