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