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

[OCD]

If they rested a lot of their first team, then where's the issue?

[aj2k77]

If the outbreak was at the Spurs end then that  fan would be arguing the exact opposite of what he is sporting there but there would be some on our side arguing for it to go ahead (not this site).

However we played a game on Friday in a prestigious competition against the first choice team of current champions of England so if we have the same players available is there any reason why we shouldn’t play Tottenham on Wednesday?

Yes, because no other team have been forced to play with under 18''s, they've had their games called off.

End of story.

[kippaxvilla2]

Good proposal by Matt Law on Twitter:

There's a really easy solution to the scheduling. Tottenham v Fulham Weds, Fulham v Chelsea moves to Sat 5.30pm and keeps a TV slot, Villa v Everton moves to Sunday 12noon (TV slot free). This of course needs clubs and broadcasters to be flexible but no big disadvantage here.

Chelsea travel to Leicester next Tuesday night, but Leicester are already playing at 8pm on Sat night so Chelsea would not be disadvantaged by playing Fulham at 5.30pm on Sat instead.

Also, surely now Villa v Newcastle gets rearranged for the FA Cup fourth round weekend of Jan 23/24 with both clubs out of the Cup.

All of that seems far too logical.

[Bobby Boy]

If the outbreak was at the Spurs end then that  fan would be arguing the exact opposite of what he is sporting there but there would be some on our side arguing for it to go ahead (not this site).

However we played a game on Friday in a prestigious competition against the first choice team of current champions of England so if we have the same players available is there any reason why we shouldn’t play Tottenham on Wednesday?

Yes, because no other team have been forced to play with under 18''s, they've had their games called off.

End of story.

Amen to that.

[aj2k77]

Why is anyone being made to bend over backwards to suit Tottenham?

We have a covid outbreak and haven't trained. Call the match off.
Fulham aren't scheduled to play them Wednesday. Don't arrange a match at 48 hours notice.

If there's a back log then that's what squads are for at some point. They're not to stock pile players so others don't get them. They're not to enable you to make 5 subs in a game to overwhelm the opposition. They're not to boast about strength in depth.

Champions league money, champions league squad, champions league strength in depth? Well prove it. Use them when you have a backlog towards the end of the season.

[aj2k77]

Can anyone give a plausable reason why all of a sudden it's imperative to play matches against u23's/u18's, when a week ago it wasn't and matches were postponed?

What has changed? And give a single fair reason why we should bite the bullet on this one?

[London Villan]

Realistically the PL should have stuck to the 14 fit players rule. The fact they didn’t sets the precedent which can now benefit from.

[Villafirst]

It's a moot point that Villa's squad haven't trained together for nearly a week. Some of the players may also be feeling the effects of Covid. The opposition shouldn't be handed any advantage whatsoever. Ffs call it off!

[LeeB]

Can anyone give a plausable reason why all of a sudden it's imperative to play matches against u23's/u18's, when a week ago it wasn't and matches were postponed?

What has changed? And give a single fair reason why we should bite the bullet on this one?

All that's changed is that one club, in a different competition, went about fulfilling, without fuss, their fixture despite having no chance of winning as a result.

And now that same club is expected to do the same for the benefit of other, lesser clubs, who can frankly get fucked.

[walsall villain]

Realistically the PL should have stuck to the 14 fit players rule. The fact they didn’t sets the precedent which can now benefit from.

I agree. I was surprised at the time that the Newcastle game was cancelled as further cases were likely.

[Risso]

The club should just tell the Premier League we're not playing the match, for the same (only more severe) reasons that the other games have been called off. What they do after that in respect of rearranging Fulham or whatever is up to them.

[frank black]

The club should just tell the Premier League we're not playing the match, for the same (only more severe) reasons that the other games have been called off. What they do after that in respect of rearranging Fulham or whatever is up to them.

Painted the image in my head of us phoning in sick. We’d have to put on the poorly voice.

[Dave P]

Got a feeling everything will be halted soon anyway.

[frank black]

Well one things for sure they can’t go on postponing matches for much longer. Especially if teams start being impacted more than once...

[Dave P]

The Athletic are confirming our game v Spurs is off and they will play Fulham instead on Wednesday.  Got a feeling Fulham will feel hard done by this.