Arsenal have been accused of being ‘selfish’ for restarting training sessions this week, with the London Colney training ground being reopened tomorrow.
The club was one of the first to shut down due to manager Mikel Arteta having been confirmed as contracting the virus, and the whole division has since been suspended, with no idea of when (or if) the season will be able to continue.
Despite social distancing supposedly set to be adhered to, TalkSport host Georgie Bingham has slammed the decision to reopen the training facility.
“It made me really upset, Arsenal going back to training next week,” Bingham said on Sunday morning.
“That breaks social distancing rules. Social distancing rules say you can go out for food, health reasons or work but only if you cannot work from home.
“Well, even if training doesn’t resume until June 1, because that’s the kind of deadline isn’t it that they’re setting on finishing the season, you can work from home if you’re a footballer because you have no reason to be in work because there are no games.
“So you’re working from home on your fitness.
“You can have four weeks of training when they say that the game can return, but what kind of example is football setting except that it’s greedy and it needs to go back to work?
“I don’t get it, I just think it looks bad.”
Bingham moved onto insist that the club have overstepped the mark, and should have waited until they were advised to return from those higher up.
“Wait for the Government to tell you or wait for the governing bodies of the Premier League to tell you you can return to work,” she continued.
“You only need one of those players to pick up coronavirus and start a fresh run and they’ve already had it Arsenal, they’ve had a problem with it.
“So you only need one player to come back, or give it to his family or his pregnant wife or his parents who are vulnerable, because a lot of people will have their families living with them at the moment, and it’s just unnecessary.
“It’s really, really selfish and stupid and unnecessary and I don’t care for it at all.
“It just makes football look bad. Even though it’s really important and everyone’s facing financial ruin across the board, you’ve got to look, if you’re football, at how it looks.
“It looks poor and it looks selfish and it looks greedy.”
Can training recommence while adhering to social distancing rules? Could the club get in trouble for allowing a return to training? Would an outbreak at the club following the return to training have major repercussions for Arsenal Football Club?
Patrick
Its fantastic news. Thousands of Brits are out every day going for runs through crowded parks.
Nothing wrong with players returning to training. The players can all do individual sessions of running, weights and ball skills and still keep the same social distancing skills. Normalising training will quickly lead to normalising playing. The season resuming gets even closer 🙂 9th place Arsenal has to play otherwise we are out of Europe. Playing Sheff Utd in the cup quarters is going to be great. Seeing Liverpool win the title will be a pleasure I am sure you will all agree they deserve to win it.
Sorry mate but Liverpool haven’t won the title yet, no matter how much you and the FA would like them to and as for thousands of British (hate the word Brits), out enjoying themselves, I’d like to know what our hard working, brave NHS think of that. As for the word “Brit” abbreviate any other nationality and people call you a racist,
Kenny
I agree with ALL your sentiments but fear that ‘football ‘will try as hard as it can to resume as the financial consequences are vast
Even though I write as one who is convinced this season cannot possibly complete its fixtures , I do think the clubis being sensible by inviting playrs to train and also insist andarrange that all players keep apart whentraining. This type of training, as I seeit reported, is NOTHING like tht normal club training which would be wrong and not allowed. To keep young professional footballers as fir as possible is just common sense and PROVIDED all keep their distance , which is planned, then it is a good and sensible plan.
I am more than three times the age of our younger players(almost four times Sakas age) and would not dream of missing my own run each day, so why on earth should the players not be allowed to keep fit. Geergie Bingham has this wrong.
But I repeat, the idea of playing games this summer is never going to happen. Not a hope!
As long as they respect the current guild lines, and are getting tested, then why shouldn’t they be allowed back? The tests will eventually allow for physical contact, which in turn will mean the resumption of football.
This is also a great opportunity for all clubs to get used to the guild lines for now, and for when influenza returns, or is it only Covid-19 sufferers we should care about?
Agreed mate, im a trademan working in Wales. I have made no money over the last 3 months due to COVID. The welsh government have yesterday finally relaxed the guidelines for me to work. Of course all providing that i adhere to social distancing rules and both myself and my clients or not displaying symptoms. If the players can be provided with an environment that allows them to exercise under social distancing then fine. it cant be any more of a rsk than standing in a que outside you supermarket then potentially touching goods that have been touched carrying COVID
I’ve been around the training ground, it’s facilities are massive and there is plenty of room for social distancing, especially if it’s only the first team squad (as reported) being back there to train. Huge gyms, individual showers, huge changing areas and loads of outside pitches. I agree wholeheartedly with Jon fox though and certainly cannot foresee any League games being played this season.
Oh, and Bingham (who’s he?) is talking rubbish…. does anyone still listen to Talkshite anyway?
With respect, what was the purpose of your last point?