Too much of a good thing.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

[...]



Conflict of interested between managers/coaches and players on one side and the club owners on the other side, latter wants them to enter as many competitions and play as many games as possible for revenue. The employer can choose not to employ workers willing to work less for example. There's no laws in place for this as far as I know

They'll demand wotking from home next

[norse]

They'll demand wotking from home next

1-2 weeks off and a demand that you're the best in the world with every performance is luckily not something that I'm asked to do from a home office. It's the performance that will get worse and worse as long as we're having humans instead of half machines as players. Maybe in the future:)
The mental stress that goes with this job is also something I'm very glad I don't have to do and being recognized where ever you go seems like purgatory for me.

Most players know they are privileged with their salaries and the fact they have a dream job.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

tbf it is irrelevant how much they earn

the top players are playing far too much football and, if not curbed, it will lead to physical and mental problems, burn out, injuries

Good for them bringing it to attention. I doubt they club owners or rights owners (FIFA, UEFA, EPL etc) will pay much heed to what they are saying though - even though the players themselves are the product

would i take less money to work less? probably, so some footballers may also be willing to do that. but the players don't really get much say in what happens, nor do managers

[Chicken Run Supreme]

In the words of Jim Royle, ”Too much football my arse”

When nurses, doctors, firemen and public servants go on strike there is generally sympathy and a fair amount of public support. For professional footballers who play twice a week at the most, threaten a strike I have zero sympathy with the lazy overpaid ****ers.

[S-H]

He is right, I used to love the premier league, watched every game, lived for Super Sundays down the pub.

But, it's too much now, it's rammed down your throat.

If West Ham aren't playing, it's Non-League football for me.

Either Dorchester town, Weymouth, or Yeovil town, really enjoy that.

[Billydinho]

tbf it is irrelevant how much they earn

the top players are playing far too much football and, if not curbed, it will lead to physical and mental problems, burn out, injuries

Good for them bringing it to attention. I doubt they club owners or rights owners (FIFA, UEFA, EPL etc) will pay much heed to what they are saying though - even though the players themselves are the product

would i take less money to work less? probably, so some footballers may also be willing to do that. but the players don't really get much say in what happens, nor do managers

Actually it's not irrelevant how much they earn because the amount of football they play heavily influences how much they earn. Their exposure in all those competitions leads to their status in the game and therefore their value.

Also, lets get this right. They train for a couple of hours a day and then play three games a week at most. They won't train either side of midweek games so how much 'work' are we talking here?

Lastly, even if we bought into the top players being burnt out argument, so what? The top clubs have expensively assembled squads and multimillion pound academies. Why not utilise these assets instead of flogging the same 6 or 7 faces every game?

[D C]

This "load management" is not without controversy. Fans are rightly irate when paying premium prices to see certain stars (a la "Come see the Man City superstars") and has also called into question the competitive integrity of the teams engaging in this strategy. Before last season, the Association had to change the rules to reign it in:

NBA to curb ‘load management’ for star players with strict new policy

This is the thing with football soon too. People can talk about how much they earn but these extra games will lead to worse games. Great players will either be rested, underperform due to fatigue or be out through increased injuries.

Would not surprise me if top players start regularly retiring from International’s much younger than before too. Why wouldn’t you cut that out to prolong your career and increase earning potential?

[arlhe]

Not sure how the poor mites would cope with 42 league games, endless cup replays, internationals and a squad of 15 players ...

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Actually it's not irrelevant how much they earn because the amount of football they play heavily influences how much they earn. Their exposure in all those competitions leads to their status in the game and therefore their value.

Also, lets get this right. They train for a couple of hours a day and then play three games a week at most. They won't train either side of midweek games so how much 'work' are we talking here?

Lastly, even if we bought into the top players being burnt out argument, so what? The top clubs have expensively assembled squads and multimillion pound academies. Why not utilise these assets instead of flogging the same 6 or 7 faces every game?

The players have no control over the football calander though, or the amount of games that are scheduled. They also have little control over whether they get picked or not. If the owners want results they will expect the manager to pick the best players all the time

The point is the players are the product that makes the money but they have no input into the ever expanding fixture list

In US sports the players have quite a lot of power and have gone on strike before en mass to get better terms

[Macca1973]

Not sure how the poor mites would cope with 42 league games, endless cup replays, internationals and a squad of 15 players ...

Not to mention the shocking pitches, rock hard balls and crap boots etc.

[Mod Life Crisis]

Not sure how the poor mites would cope with 42 league games, endless cup replays, internationals and a squad of 15 players ...

In the 1979-80 season, Arsenal played 70 competitive games. They had a squad of 19 players. (I remembered the first stat, as it stuck out a mile at the time, had to look the 2nd one up). For this very reason, I have always laughed when told how many games they have to play now (with their state of the art medical teams, perfect playing surfaces, proper diets, lighter balls, first class travel etc.).

Having said all of the above, I agree that there is far too much football being played and that European club competitions would be better to view if they returned to two-legged knockouts. No chance of anyone voting for this.

[Tezza65]

Make the European comps blind draw, straight knockout. Forest played 9 games to win it in 79. Congestion solved.

Bin nations cup and mid season international stuff. Have a window at the end of league seasons and run qualifying comps then.

It will never happen mate,because FIFA and UEFA want the gravy train to be has long has possible.It's total greed by these organisations and Football Club owners.

[MargateMartyn]

For cryin out loud we're talkin football here.....this guy earns in the region of 10 mill a year....to kick a ball around, playing just
short of 2 games a week over 9 months or so...3/4 hours of high quality training a day,best medical care you can get, best dietry advice,
state of art gyms..it goes on...there is nothing nothing these guy don't want for...it's simply one of the easiest best gigs in the world..
So PLEASE PLEASE don't moan and winge...way to much s**t going on around us.. people struggling here....and dying thru wars and
starvation around the world...give it a break,need to get in the real world.
PL Sides, most Euro top leagues,some worldwide,have Squads of 24/25 highly paid fit professionals...absolutely no excuse cant play
2 games a week...NONE.
If people say to much football....err.... don't watch it...
Our Cups are a massive help to the lower league clubs.....that the PL it's Managers and Players don't seem to give a flying S**t about..

Anyway all us lot were over the moon about the 2 games a week we've had last few years...despite the Sun/Thurs thing...

And don't get me started on the To Tired to play for your country thing ..

I couldn't agree more.

[Ironing Board]

Back in those days they weren’t playing with the same sort of intensity. One of the reason quality is down if football skills are secondary to athletic ability nowadays.

[CarltonColesLeftFoot]

Yeah I think the "boo hoo" crowd are grossly misunderstanding the volume of painkilling injections players take to get through a season.

"They play twice a week and train 3/4 hours a day" isn't exactly bang on the money either. The role & strain of a footballer is not limited to 20 odd hours of exercise a week and thats what they're complaining etc.

Also, would love to see our fan base reaction if Kudus, Bowen or Paqueta decided they didn't want to travel to away at Newcastle as part of their load management routine.

[ironilunga]

Not much wrong with domestic game. However the international calendar is archaic.

Let’s be real: like snooker the16 ranked countries in the world should automatically qualify for World Cups. That would still leave 32 places available for the next WC and I would advocate a knockout comp in each federation to decide who qualifies.

As for England, more often than not they would be in the top 16, which means we could approach a top manager like Pep or Klopp to the take the team for the Summer finals, without disrupting their c domestic football commitments.

[Wilko1304]

He’s right, and it’s ridiculous the way the authorities show disregard for players, fans and the intelligence of the football world.

It’s very much unfair on their physical wellbeing. I think opinions on that one vary - the wage they get always comes up - but I also wonder if those same people are the ones who complain about football being more rigid now, more tactical and about systems. I think there’s a good chance this is because of fatigue, and mental fatigue in particular, meaning they need to be able to rely on the learned process.

But it’s also a bad way to treat the sport for the audience. Not only do we get more injuries and players playing tired, but the special feel of many games is gone. I can’t be bothered with the Champions League any more, it feels like every edition is the same as the last and the big games are repeated every so often. Even if, in reality, these teams don’t meet often, it feels like they do because there is always big games.

Moreover, the part that I think suggests they think fans are dumb, is they now flood the calendar with big matches between big teams, but with minimal stakes. Oh no, PSG lost to Juve in the group stage? Now they’ll…just beat the teams that are thrown in there to be beaten by the giants, and just qualify anyway. They think we don’t know, that Mbappe vs Haaland melts our brains.

The interesting and innovative ideas aren’t really considered. It’s all about draining what money they can make off the name value of teams and stars. It’s FIFA and UEFA being Amazon and the like, just printing as much money as they can.

The only positive is it keeps these clubs together, and allows the rest of us to try real tournaments like the Europa League was.

[davids cross]

Same with every sport sadly.

Cricket is god damn impossible to follow or get excited about now. Saturated into boredom.

Cheltenham festival used to be the Olympics of horse racing over 3 days....now the quality has been watered down to nonsense because they wanted more days.

Less is more. An old saying but so very true. For people of my ilk anyway.

[West Ham Matt]

I wonder how he will enjoy the championship scheduling next season, should city be punished appropriately.

[Viv Stanshall]

Well he may well get the chance to dip out of European club competition very soon, but that will come with a 46 game league season in the championship !
Oh no I forgot, they’ll all bugger off to play for a club in the champions league with its possible 17 additional games per season.
I’m afraid you can’t bleat on about it if you have the choice to reduce your work load.
Like the rest of us, if we want a quieter life with less stress and work , we are free to make that choice, but in doing so it comes with less pay in 9 out of 10 cases.
He should go and play in Gibralta if he wants a rest.
I totally agree with him, there’s too much football, but it isn’t the Premier league or cup competitions that are adding to that burden, they have decreased. It’s purely the European matches that have increased over the years with their pointless mini leagues that are morphing into a European super league by stealth.