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

[OCD]

If players were stuck at home for 2-4 weeks, it would take another 2-3 weeks to give them a mini pre-season again and they would be at risk of injury.

Premier League is well tested and does as much as possible to ensure the safety of players. The lower leagues are at a greater risk.

[andyh]

Considering how many people are involved in football - players, management, coaches, training ground staff, stadia staff, TV people, journalists, multiplied by the number of teams, the number of divisions, the number of games, then the numbers of positive cases appears minuscule.

It is obviously being managed, incredibly well.

[CT]

They mentioned on 5live yesterday that the average cost of all the testing was £10k a week, so it was more likely that the lower leagues would stop completely in the next few days.

[Ads]

Considering how many people are involved in football - players, management, coaches, training ground staff, stadia staff, TV people, journalists, multiplied by the number of teams, the number of divisions, the number of games, then the numbers of positive cases appears minuscule.

It obviously being managed, incredibly well.

I did the tour back in August (6 months since the Spurs game!) and they showed us all the COVID protocols. Very impressive.

[cdbearsfan]

Neville is right, it would be pointless. If we're off for two weeks, they're going to need to train anyway and they're still knocking about in general society, so what changes.

Play on. The bubbles and testing are rigorous, if the players don't want to play, then that is their choice, but we all heard SJM; they're desperate to play.

If the bubbles and testing are rigorous why are there so many problems? Newcastle, Sheffield United, Southampton, Man City, Fulham, all affected. Seven League One games off in the last round of fixtures.

If they aren't doing all that they can then they need to fix it. If they are taking every reasonable precaution and it is still happening then, sadly, I think a break would be for the best. Agree that two weeks would make no difference though, would have to be at least a month.

[Baldy]

After the medical services and most vulnerable people have been vaccinated all Premier League players/staff should be next.

Millions stay at home to watch matches and this is essential in not spreading the virus and potentially saving many lives.

Just a thought.   

[Ads]

Neville is right, it would be pointless. If we're off for two weeks, they're going to need to train anyway and they're still knocking about in general society, so what changes.

Play on. The bubbles and testing are rigorous, if the players don't want to play, then that is their choice, but we all heard SJM; they're desperate to play.

If the bubbles and testing are rigorous why are there so many problems? Newcastle, Sheffield United, Southampton, Man City, Fulham, all affected. Seven League One games off in the last round of fixtures.

If they aren't doing all that they can then they need to fix it. If they are taking every reasonable precaution and it is still happening then, sadly, I think a break would be for the best. Agree that two weeks would make no difference though, would have to be at least a month.

Some alleged things with regards to at least one team. But its a tiny fraction with regards to the rest. Its winter, absolutely peak time for respiratory illness, there will always be some cases.

[London Villan]

They might pay to jump the queue...

[Ian.]

I guess a two week circuit breaker would be as useful as the Government’s haphazard approach to half hearted lockdowns. Surely like everything else, a full lockdown like we had last March is what’s needed to slow the spread to levels the NHS can cope with.

[andyh]

I guess a two week circuit breaker would be as useful as the Government’s haphazard approach to half hearted lockdowns. Surely like everything else, a full lockdown like we had last March is what’s needed to slow the spread to levels the NHS can cope with.

I doubt many affected footballers are a drain on the NHS.

[ChicagoLion]

The difference in the number of people in the ground since the beginning of lockdown  to now is vastly different( I don’t mean the games where fans are allowed)
There are hundreds of “ officials”

I don’t see how a 2 week lock down will work.

[Ian.]

I guess a two week circuit breaker would be as useful as the Government’s haphazard approach to half hearted lockdowns. Surely like everything else, a full lockdown like we had last March is what’s needed to slow the spread to levels the NHS can cope with.

I doubt many affected footballers are a drain on the NHS.

What I’m saying is the two week circuit breaker will probably be pointless.

[oishiiniku]

I see that Man City's training ground is open again after the first team squad returned negative tests. So, as far as I can tell, they had two players and two staff members test positive in the past week. Was that really enough to warrant postponing the game against Everton? It would be helpful to know if there's a threshold for postponement (last season the talk was that a team had to play a fixture if that had 14 fit players) because at the moment it feels very hard to know what the tipping point is. Is it Public Health England calling the shots now?

[olaftab]

It would be interesting to know if one of the mancC players tested positive was K Walker?

[paul_e]

It would be interesting to know if one of the mancC players tested positive was K Walker?

It was I think, I'm pretty sure i saw him and Jesus named.