Aston Villa vs Burnley pre match thread POSTPONED

[N'ZMAV]

Stop moaning all you bits of kids.  I remember parking up at Old Trafford just as a game was called off once.  I didn’t phone 0898 12 11 48 attempting to vent my spleen.

you're just doing it here now

[Risso]

Chelsea is surely gone now too? If we don't have enough players now then we won't on the 26th either.

You would think so. Anybody positive today how to isolate from today, or earlier if they were symptomatic. That takes them to after Christmas in nearly all cases.

[Meanwood Villa]

Yes I don't see how boxing day can happen unless there are a load of false positives. I am sceptical about Leeds as well

[LukeJames]

I am sceptical about Leeds as well

I think they are ******.

[Nii Lamptey]

Villa can put all the safeguards they like in place, but the players then go home and make contact with their families (who could have been in contact with any Tom, dick or Harry), or the younger less tied down players such as Dougie or Leon, off out partying with their extended group of ‘friends’ - As an example, Sanson had posted pics of a family trip to Disneyland Paris recently. Is that really a wise thing to do mid-season in the middle of an upturn of a pandemic?

I’m not saying they have to live like nuns, but they are paid handsome amounts to stay as fit and healthy as possible, to enable them to be called upon for matchdays. They, above all people should be keeping as low a profile as possible to minimise transmission. They need to shoulder some of the blame in all of this too imo.

However, that aside, fan safety should be the paramount priority in all of this, and 42k in a packed out villa park when there were 92k confirmed cases the previous day (and climbing) shows utter negligence towards the fan base imo. Fans would turn up to support the team no matter what, and the league is playing with this devotion, irrespective of the covid situation. They should be taking the decision out of fans hands to keep everyone safe (ie. Not just the fans who decide to turn up regardless of the risk, but the people they would make contact with over the coming days post-match).

I think it’s done till FA Cup third round now. And rightly so imo.

[N'ZMAV]

the players have played a blinder here, they get xmas off now.

[BC Villain]

On the back of the gushing tweet about Rat Boys return, it's another poor piece of PR from the club

[kippaxvilla2]

Well presumably those players isolating before Norwich will be available so not as many out for Chelsea? 

[sickbeggar]

Depends if they recover. Lot of young fit people take weeks to get over it

[Villatillidie1982]

I guess that the only way to ensure safety is to test everyone (including the players) before they enter the ground. It would be a pain but at least the matches could go ahead. Nobody carrying the virus, vaccinated or not, would be allowed to enter. There would be depleted teams but football would go ahead and maybe some of the younger players would get a chance.

[SoccerHQ]

Offer players 50 thousand pounds to get the jabs, you soon seeing them queuing up

a weeks wages - that's probably not going to encourage them.

Think telling anyone not jabbed at all to spend night before home game in hotel away from family is worth considering (jabbed players can spend it at home). That would be one incentive perhaps as I assume some of the ones who tested positive from Friday-Saturday were probably innocently playing with their kids and picked it up from them.

Certainly would be expecting whoever is in the squad who have been double vaxxed to be getting their boosters this week, would have no issue if that's deemed queue jumping.

How do we know it’s no players who are already vaccinated that have got the virus? You do all realise  you can still get it whether vaccinated or not? I was double jabbed and had been since April but still managed to get it in July.

It's a tricky one.

Obviously all the data shows double vaxxed + booster means very little chance of ending up in hospital with severe illness. No vaccination at all and picking up virus and passing it on could endanger the individual significantly more and anyone in their inner circle not vaxxed either.

Will have to make a judgement call I think once the data comes through of how significant the variant is at putting people into hospital otherwise you might aswell just call the season off as unrealistic to think January won't be disrupted given variant will still be sweeping through the U.K.

If this bugger of a virus can ever morph into a cold like virus then it's not a problem at all and football can just continue as normal. Long way off that I suspect.

[PaulTheVillan]

The PL should have called off this whole weekend. Total shit show.

[Martyn Smith]

Offer players 50 thousand pounds to get the jabs, you soon seeing them queuing up

I wasn't offered a few days wages to get the jabs. I did it out of a sense of social responsibility. As I trust everyone reading this also did.

Nope, should be all stick here IMV. I'd go as far as no jab, no job. You don't get the jab, you don't play and you don't train. Ideally it would be you don't get paid either, but I suppose that wouldn't survive legal challenge.

[Meanwood Villa]

I am sceptical about Leeds as well

I think they are ******.

Lol

[Drummond]

The club cant unilaterally call it off. The Premier League make the call. The results didn't come until this morning. The club notified the Premier League who took some time.

The club couldn't call it off yesterday as there weren't confirmed cases.

The argument us whether the Premier League could and should have.