After an eventful few weeks the cry for a temporary suspension of the English football leagues during the brisk winter months seem to have been temporarily silenced. That is until the inevitable poor performance by England in the European championships this summer.
December in particular can be a huge strain on the teams in England's, and debatably the world's, top league, highlighted by the topsy-turvy results produced in recent weeks. The consistency shown in the early stages by the star-studded Manchester City has wavered greatly and their new reputation as the 'neutral's team' is beginning to evaporate. Never to be outdone however, their nearest rivals have largely stolen the headlines as they capitalised on City's poor form to take first place, before spectacularly collapsing and suffering back-to-back losses against Blackburn (incidentally the biggest shock in Premier League history according to the pre-match odds of 28/1 for a Blackburn win) and Newcastle. The main beneficiary from the crowded Christmas calendar has been Tottenham, who are now level on points in second place and have, for the moment at least, opened the season up to a three-horse race.
Elsewhere in the division, the dip in dominance from the 'bigger' teams has allowed others to pick up points crucial to their campaign. A string of impressive performances from the likes of Norwich and Sunderland has temporarily released them from the threat of relegation.
Aside from the factor of entertainment, (and this last month has been very entertaining; with late goals, dubious decisions, firing and hirings, return of legends, etc), surely one of the arguments in favour of a winter break is the decline in weather? In recent years however, it has not been until January onwards that the country begins to freeze over, and in the last month we have seen a winter temperature almost as warm as Ryan Giggs' bed. There were no postponements in the top two English leagues in December and everything ran as smoothly as Blue Ivy's bottom.
This then leaves the monotonous wearing-out-players argument, and whilst we can argue that they are paid enough so they should play when they are told to, they are athletes at the top of their game and can only perform as much as their body will allow. My issue with the 'solution' of a winter vacation however, is that it isn't a solution, merely a lazy attempt to copy the likes of Spain and Germany who have better international teams than us. Yes England were poor at the last World cup, but we weren't the only ones: Brazil were poor, Messi was silent, France were awful and Ronaldo was below par. The point is here, maybe we aren't just 'tired', maybe, horror of horrors, we are actually a poor team who do not work well together. We didn't even qualify for Euro 08 and the qualification stages were held during the course of our domestic season, so were they tired then? Of course the 'wally with the brolly' took the rap for that one, and the England players slid away back to their clubs. I would like to see what the F.A. would do if we introduced a winter break and still we floundered on the international stage.
And surely there is an obvious flaw to the proposed 'solution' in that the games delayed in the winter will still need to be played in the summer? This would mean a longer season and less preparation time for the summer tournaments, no? Oh but Germany and Spain do it! That must be the only reason they do well. They are screwed now, their secret is out.
If the footballing bodies in this country are really concerned about our players 'burning out' then the only option is to reduce the size of the league, and therefore the number of games. This would, of course, result in lower TV revenues for everyone and is probably the reason that we should not expect to see any developments in the near future. Equally so, I cannot see Sky witnessing the abolition of the winter fixtures without a fight, purely because of the entertainment and viewing figures they attract. So we will just have to lump it. Not that I personally am complaining, Boxing Day wouldn't be Boxing Day without a full helping of Jeff and the boys.
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