There has been much talk about whether a winter break should be installed into the English league campaign, and Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech is the latest to give his thoughts on the idea.
Our team certainly didn’t deal with the period as well as some others, having won only one match since December 22, but that has surprisingly not put our shot-stopper off having to play such a congestive fixture schedule over Christmas and New Years.
Cech claims that the tradition of playing so often over the final weeks of the calendar year should not be changed, but in fact suggests installing a break after the third round of the FA Cup in January.
“We should, but not during the Christmas period, because it has such a great tradition in this country and I wouldn’t change that,” he told Arsenal Player.
“Usually the first week of January or the second week of January is the FA Cup game and I think there are plenty of moments where you can shift one week. I would probably leave this period because, as I said, it’s really special in England.
“I would play in the frantic and charged period of December and in the first week of January. Then the second week of January I would give everybody a break because I think if you cut those five days, it would help people to recharge physically and mentally.
“People would be refreshed, the teams would have a week where you could have five days off completely, for people to drift away from football, then come back, have five days of preparation and then resume.
“I think it would have no impact on anything because if you think, every year we finish around May 20, then have the FA Cup depending on how it goes. Then you have international games which start on June 13, so if you finish on May 20, you still have to train because you go to the national team.”
Is the Christmas tradition something we could do without? Is a one week break going to make much difference?
Pat J
The Europeans have a break
why not the English?
Money can’t be the issue
because the top leagues are
drowning in money from many sources.
Personally I favour less games.
The NFL is a one country sport with an
8 home game 16 game regular season.
Even with little overseas interest the NFL still makes gazillions.
32 EPL games is plenty.
Play 14 teams home and away ensuring you play all traditional
derby rivals twice and then just once against 4 other less connected teams.
It’s a small change but with significant positives.
16 home game 32 match league season,
plus domestic cups and European football is more than enough.
6 less games will have minimal financial impact on already vastly over paid players.
6 less games would allow a ten day mid winter break
and a ten day longer summer break especially invaluable
for recovery in Euro and world cup years.
Another change would be that teams with European football
come into the League cup and FA Cup one round later.
Like VAR such simple but beneficial changes should have been made years ago.
What are people afraid of?
A break would be nice too for many gooners out there, an opportunity to recharge their batteries and get ready to listen to Arsene’s excuses and bullsh:t for second half of the season.
Ozil injured and out of tommorows game
Sanchez if he plays will not throw too much into possibly getting injured and losing his move
Worried about tommorow if I’m honest
It makes complete sense. Thats why it won’t happen. The FA still haven’t introduced instant replay yet innit. Not even for goal line goal decisions.
The rest (no pun intended) of Europe gets rest at Christmas. Two weeks is enough. It will raise the level of football going into tye home stretch of the season and more importantly give players with injuries more rest to recuperate. Arsenal of all teams no the importance of dealing with injuries. We are dogged by injuries every season innit.
This is the popular excuse all of a sudden. EPL teams were winning UCL trophies when there was no winter break. Holiday games are part of British culture. Shocking that Cech is the one to complain being the veteran, he should be pushing the team to keep fighting instead of saying he’s tired. There’s a long run of games ahead. Just get on with it.
I love the extra games over the Christmas period. It’s part of what makes our league the most entertaining in the world! The players shouldn’t be complaining. They’ll only have something like a maximum of 6hrs of work to do in a week, compared to the usual 1.5/3hrs they’ll normally do in a week. Hardly a big difference, and given the amount they’re paid, pampered, and the fact they have the best medical treatment, physios, chiropractors, they should be playing over Christmas!!
He should concentrate on his penalties keeping and stop talking about many fixtures.
The Christmas period puts every one under pressure it separates the weak from the strong. Players become gladiators. I love that, but I agree to give some time off to recuperate after that else it becomes damaging to players also its unsettling as the window reopens so the Christmas period can be a killer as you can have a couple of injuries add to that a couple of travelers there is no time to adjust and or to prepare or to shop it basically turns up to a hot potato period