How much will Coronavirus (COVID-19) impact Aston Villa's season?

[London Villan]

Can’t players be furloughed?

[mr underhill]

can't football? Or at least the PL - I suppose in the long run it will be, which is good.

[Richard E]

Can’t players be furloughed?

There’s no legal reason why not, but any Premier League club that did it would get slaughtered and as the maximum they could claim from the Government would be £2500 per month per player you’d assume they wouldn’t think it was worth the resulting opprobrium. I may be overestimating their morals and/or brains.

[frank black]

I wonder what impact all this will have upon transfer fees in the summer? Holding onto you best players for one more season, in the hope things get better or sell because you’ve really go to I guess. If financially sound (whatever that is) coming out out of this, you’re going to have a big advantage.

[aev]

It looks like they may accept the inevitable tomorrow.

I think they will drag it out for a bit longer yet.

[Mister E]

I wonder what impact all this will have upon transfer fees in the summer? Holding onto you best players for one more season, in the hope things get better or sell because you’ve really go to I guess. If financially sound (whatever that is) coming out out of this, you’re going to have a big advantage.

One way of dealing with the premature ending of this season may  be to suspend the transfer window in  the summer, to try and maintain the same competitive dynamic that existed pre-virus.

[Jon Crofts]

I wonder what impact all this will have upon transfer fees in the summer? Holding onto you best players for one more season, in the hope things get better or sell because you’ve really go to I guess. If financially sound (whatever that is) coming out out of this, you’re going to have a big advantage.

One way of dealing with the premature ending of this season may  be to suspend the transfer window in  the summer, to try and maintain the same competitive dynamic that existed pre-virus.

Not a chance of that happening.

[Dave]

I wonder what impact all this will have upon transfer fees in the summer? Holding onto you best players for one more season, in the hope things get better or sell because you’ve really go to I guess. If financially sound (whatever that is) coming out out of this, you’re going to have a big advantage.

One way of dealing with the premature ending of this season may  be to suspend the transfer window in  the summer, to try and maintain the same competitive dynamic that existed pre-virus.

How would you deal with the thousands of players worldwide whose contracts would have expired?

Lots of lower league clubs only have players contracted for twelve months at a time.

[cdbearsfan]

It would be quite unfair to tell players whose contracts expire that they are not allowed to sign for another club. Perhaps a decent compromise between the PFA and the league would that players accept a 25% cut, but clubs carry on paying those whose contracts have expired until normality resumes.

[chrisw1]

Can’t players be furloughed?

They could if you felt it right the govenment pay them them the equivalent of a £40k salary and you wanted to give them the opportunity of voiding their contracts and leaving on a free.

[brian green]

The financial issues of the pandemic are so huge that what happens to football clubs and football players is only a spit in the ocean.  Any deal cobbled together while the disease rages will fall apart within days if not hours.

[BoVillan esq]

It looks like they may accept the inevitable tomorrow.

I think they will drag it out for a bit longer yet.

Really astonishing the FA haven't taken a very pragmatic view on this, for all kinds of reasons the season has to now end, one for absolute closure, its done, forget it, two, you have to consider the season stopped at a time when players where totally focused, at the very pinnacle of there powers and season, in order to best achieve certain targets, overnight that vanished and for a long time now they have been languishing around home, bit of lite training, then because the FA says so they have to start right back up at where they left of with so much is at stake,  some players will manage that, most certainly won't, its completely unfair on teams that could expect to finish in the top 6, get relegated and other such targets that that now won't happen, or will in the case of relegation,  we all know what most teams and players look like at the start of the season and how teams and players look, come March/April/May time, chalk and cheese.

If I was Dean Smith I would insist the squad gets a full pre-season, that's how crazy this is and how crucial.   

[BoVillan esq]

The financial issues of the pandemic are so huge that what happens to football clubs and football players is only a spit in the ocean.  Any deal cobbled together while the disease rages will fall apart within days if not hours.

Exactly, another reason is they are now openly discussing a 2nd wave, in the US they are saying this will likely happen and the only way out of this is a vaccine.

[olaftab]

The financial issues of the pandemic are so huge that what happens to football clubs and football players is only a spit in the ocean.  Any deal cobbled together while the disease rages will fall apart within days if not hours.

Indeed. The so called £750M is nothing really as well. At worst it's £35M loss for every PL club  and at best will be negotiated down and deducted from future payments.

[SoccerHQ]

It would be quite unfair to tell players whose contracts expire that they are not allowed to sign for another club. Perhaps a decent compromise between the PFA and the league would that players accept a 25% cut, but clubs carry on paying those whose contracts have expired until normality resumes.

Would clubs actually sign players if they know they weren't playing for months on end? See it all the time with players you could easily sign in May but clubs don't bother until late July so they can save a few months wages and that's knowing a season will start in 2-3 weeks.