Are there too many games?

[ASHTONVILLA]

No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.

Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.

[eamonn]

Yeah but Don't You Want Me was at number one and Villa were the reigning champions, I'd swap a bit of gentrification for that. Just for a bit, mind. You'd start to miss avocado and sourdough.

[paul_e]

No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.

Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.

Mandated matchday squad places for club-trained players would be a far better way to ensure meaningful game time for academy players than having a near complete flip of the squad for a few cup games every season. When they went up to 20man squads they should've added a caveat that those spots (at the very least) were only for academy/club trained players. Personally I'd take it further and go for 3 or 4. Keeping a squad of 25 full international players happy should be really difficult and should serve as a bit of a leveller between the ultra-rich and smaller clubs who just can't afford to maintain a squad like that.

[Dave]

No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.

Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.

Mandated matchday squad places for club-trained players would be a far better way to ensure meaningful game time for academy players than having a near complete flip of the squad for a few cup games every season. When they went up to 20man squads they should've added a caveat that those spots (at the very least) were only for academy/club trained players. Personally I'd take it further and go for 3 or 4. Keeping a squad of 25 full international players happy should be really difficult and should serve as a bit of a leveller between the ultra-rich and smaller clubs who just can't afford to maintain a squad like that.

This would be very sensible, but would really rub up against the daft PSR rules that we saw in the summer where you have to sell home-grown players to stay financially sound.

Tricky for us to both sell Kellyman and Iroegbunam to avoid a points deduction and keep them around for our mandated club-trained squad places.

[paul_e]

No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.

Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.

Mandated matchday squad places for club-trained players would be a far better way to ensure meaningful game time for academy players than having a near complete flip of the squad for a few cup games every season. When they went up to 20man squads they should've added a caveat that those spots (at the very least) were only for academy/club trained players. Personally I'd take it further and go for 3 or 4. Keeping a squad of 25 full international players happy should be really difficult and should serve as a bit of a leveller between the ultra-rich and smaller clubs who just can't afford to maintain a squad like that.

This would be very sensible, but would really rub up against the daft PSR rules that we saw in the summer where you have to sell home-grown players to stay financially sound.

Tricky for us to both sell Kellyman and Iroegbunam to avoid a points deduction and keep them around for our mandated club-trained squad places.

Indeed, that's one of the reasons I'd like to see it happen. I know it helped us massively but I'm fundamentally against teams using their academy as cash farms and I'd much prefer to see both of those players in our squad, Kellyman in particular is one I really hoped we'd see come good.

[Brend'Watkins]

No, the league is smaller than it used to be and squads are bigger. The FA cup and League cup use squad players, and are the only way youngsters and fringe players get competitive games failing loans, so not a problem.

Yes if we are fortunate enough to qualify for Europe there are more games, but there is also money for bigger squads too when you qualify regulary. Hence the better squad this season than last.

Yes. You can also factor in the increased amount of subs that can be used and are used.  If game totals are lowered in the Prem, just watch the amount of friendlies increase in far off places.

[Baldy]

Yes, there probably are too many games if you win everything.

But football was never designed for one team to win everything.

So f*ck off Man City*.

[PeterWithesShin]

But despite Ange Postecoglou welcoming European football being part of Tottenham's fixture list again, he does feel the congested schedule needs to be addressed.

Spurs play Manchester United just three days after tonight's game, and Postecoglou said: "I've spoken before that I think we're getting to a dangerous level of what our expectations are around players. They don't get a break between seasons anymore.

"It's going to get to a point where we're not going to have the best players out here playing and even worse probably breaking down for various reasons."

Spiurs captain Son Heung-min feels players "are not being looked after" with the number of games they are being asked to play.

On if he thinks players may take matters into their own hands, Postecoglou added: "They're the ones most affected so you'd understand if as a collective they are thinking about how much of this are we going to continually not have a say in?"

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou believes it will serve his side well in all competitions to be back playing European football.

“I said last year there was a gap in our calendar that didn’t help us at certain times of the year — not having that regular football and the challenge of playing different types of opposition and exposing the squad,” he said.

“The worst thing was sitting around watching other teams. It didn’t sit well with me, so I’m a big backer of European competitions.”

[Dave]

But despite Ange Postecoglou welcoming European football being part of Tottenham's fixture list again, he does feel the congested schedule needs to be addressed.

Spurs play Manchester United just three days after tonight's game, and Postecoglou said: "I've spoken before that I think we're getting to a dangerous level of what our expectations are around players. They don't get a break between seasons anymore.

"It's going to get to a point where we're not going to have the best players out here playing and even worse probably breaking down for various reasons."

Spiurs captain Son Heung-min feels players "are not being looked after" with the number of games they are being asked to play.

On if he thinks players may take matters into their own hands, Postecoglou added: "They're the ones most affected so you'd understand if as a collective they are thinking about how much of this are we going to continually not have a say in?"

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou believes it will serve his side well in all competitions to be back playing European football.

“I said last year there was a gap in our calendar that didn’t help us at certain times of the year — not having that regular football and the challenge of playing different types of opposition and exposing the squad,” he said.

“The worst thing was sitting around watching other teams. It didn’t sit well with me, so I’m a big backer of European competitions.”

22 May 2024

Newcastle beat Tottenham 5-4 on penalties in a post-season friendly in Australia - just three days after the Premier League ended.

The timing of the match, which was played in front of 78,419 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and finished 1-1 after normal time, had been called "madness" by former England and Newcastle striker Alan Shearer.

It went ahead despite concerns about the increasing workload being faced by players.

[paul_e]

It's no great shock that there's a bit of hypocrisy in there but he's right about the off-season break being worn away. Since the start of the world cup season there has been near constant football if you include international games and pre-season tournaments. It does need to be addressed and that means the season not starting at the beginning of August, not finishing in June and the summer games going back to being about team-building and fitness rather than cash-grab tours.

[SoccerHQ]

I actually hope the Euros goes to 32 teams in next decade. The quality is already diluted by going to 24 teams but at least then you could just have top two going through in a 32 team format.

The biggest bonus from that is surely qualification getting streamlined as utterly pointless to have the current qualification process given ten of those in competition are the likes of Andorra, San Marino, Malta etc.

Just use the Nations league as the new qualifying process as no one decent is going to miss out with 32/52 qualifying.

[astonvilla82]

Simon Jordan rightly said go and have a word with your employer, Manchester City he means,he also commented that it doesn't affect 90%of players from the lower leagues

[DeKuip]

Yes there are too many games. I’m knackered and skint and it’s not even Xmas yet.

[PeterWithesShin]

Fifa has named the 12 stadiums set to host the new-look Club World Cup in the United States next year.

The tournament, which will run from 15 June to 13 July 2025, is the first staging of an expanded 32-team competition.

Matches will be played across the US, with the final to take place at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, five miles from New York City.

The other venues are:

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta

TQL Stadium, Cincinnati

Hard Rock Stadium, Miami

Geodis Park, Nashville

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte

Camping World Stadium, Orlando

Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando

Rose Bowl Stadium, Los Angeles

Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

Lumen Field, Seattle

Audi Field, Washington DC

Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid have all automatically qualified from Europe as the most recent winners of the Champions League in the last four-year cycle.

Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto and Benfica will also feature, thanks to their co-efficient rankings.

Six South American clubs and 12 teams from Asia, Africa and North America will make up the rest of the tournament, while a spot is given to one club from Oceania and another for the US as the host nation.

The Club World Cup had previously been an annual mid-season tournament which included six teams from seven worldwide confederations.

"In 2025 a new era for club football will kick off when Fifa stages the greatest, most inclusive and merit-based global club competition right here in the United States," said Fifa president Gianni Infantino.

Fifa's decision to expand the competition has drawn criticism from clubs and players, particularly after Uefa expanded the Champions League and Europa League group stages to include two further matches.

Global players' union Fifpro and the European Leagues body, which represents 39 leagues and 1,130 clubs in 33 countries, filed a joint complaint to the European Commission in July to protest Fifa's "abuse of dominance" in the game.

Two months earlier, Fifa rejected a claim that Fifpro and the World Leagues Association were not consulted over plans to expand the Club World Cup.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri, who will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, warned earlier this month that players were close to striking because of the congested fixture list.

[Demitri_C]

I think they had a point when the world cup was played in Qatar years ago. Doing that at Xmas in the middle of our season was ridiculous but money talks as we know.

But since then replays have gone in carabao so i think that helps. I just hope they dont reduce the league by 2 teams as i know there was talk of this happening years ago but nothing came of it thankfully