PL managers & Covid postponements

[LotusOmega375D]

Funny how each expresses their own vested interests on the subject, irrespective of the real health implications. Two examples:

Eddie Howe at Newcastle wants postponements. Does this have anything to do with his club spending potentially hundreds of millions in January, so that postponements from December into later in the season would benefit his club?

Juergen Klopp at Liverpool wants to play the fixtures as scheduled. Does that have anything to do with him potentially losing Salah, Mane, Keita & Matip to the African Cup of Nations in the New Year? Then he’s got the Champions League to contend with a potential fixture congestion.

Or am I just too cynical?

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Sunday 19th December 14:21

[LotusOmega375D]

Funny how all the FA Cup ties are on. No valuable league points at stake…

[LotusOmega375D]

Surprise, surprise. The next re-scheduled PL fixture at Everton is off again. Apparently Leicester cannot field a team despite them producing a “scintillating” performance against Premier League Watford in the Cup on Saturday. Nothing to do with Vardy being injured and 4 other players away on AFCON duty then?

[towser44]

LotusOmega375D said:

Surprise, surprise. The next re-scheduled PL fixture at Everton is off again. Apparently Leicester cannot field a team despite them producing a “scintillating” performance against Premier League Watford in the Cup on Saturday. Nothing to do with Vardy being injured and 4 other players away on AFCON duty then?

Liverpool have come out today too and said all their postponements were the result of 'false positives'.

[Glassman]

towser44 said:

LotusOmega375D said:

Surprise, surprise. The next re-scheduled PL fixture at Everton is off again. Apparently Leicester cannot field a team despite them producing a “scintillating” performance against Premier League Watford in the Cup on Saturday. Nothing to do with Vardy being injured and 4 other players away on AFCON duty then?

Liverpool have come out today too and said all their postponements were the result of 'false positives'.

As much as I love football, it's now so corrupt, full of cheats.

[A Winner Is You]

Up to 40 false positives using kits that it's claimed will only give that result about 1 in 30,000 times...seems legit to me.

[LotusOmega375D]

So Burnley have to sell their main striker and now cannot field 13 fit outfield players against Leicester tomorrow…

This whole situation really stinks, doesn’t it?

[GloverMart]

Arsenal send two players out on loan this week and now haven't got enough to play Spurs on Sunday.

Absolutely stinks.

[mickk]

GloverMart said:

Arsenal send two players out on loan this week and now haven't got enough to play Spurs on Sunday.

Absolutely stinks.

4 on Acon duty... Don't buy players from that part of the World
3 Injured ... We (spurs) have 3 injured as well
3 Suspended ... Control your players
1 Doubtfull ... Who cares ?

It will be a complete farce if this game gets called off.

[GloverMart]

mickk said:

GloverMart said:

Arsenal send two players out on loan this week and now haven't got enough to play Spurs on Sunday.

Absolutely stinks.

4 on Acon duty... Don't buy players from that part of the World
3 Injured ... We (spurs) have 3 injured as well
3 Suspended ... Control your players
1 Doubtfull ... Who cares ?

It will be a complete farce if this game gets called off.

Agree 100% Mickk. It's difficult to believe that Balogun & Maitland-Niles being loaned out this week wasn't part of a bigger plan to get the game pulled. Wonder if the game isn't postponed whether some of the "injured" players might make a quicker than expected recovery.

[48k]

In May 2006, Tottenham travelled to Upton Park only needing to match Arsenal's result against Wigan in order to clinch the final Champions League spot at their rivals' expense. But on the eve of the game, Tottenham's pre-match meal of lasagne and spaghetti Bolognese at a Canary Wharf hotel caused an outbreak of vomiting and nausea among the players. The situation was so drastic that Spurs requested a postponement, only to be told by the Premier League that a failure to fulfil the fixture could lead to a points deduction. Manager Martin Jol had little choice but to field many of the players who had spent the previous evening - and much of the morning - being violently sick. Spurs lost the game 2-1.

How times have changed.

[LotusOmega375D]

Apparently Arsenal have 1 Covid case (Odegaard). That’s it. Shameful exploitation of the rules. Does anyone seriously believe that a club the size of Arsenal cannot find 13 fit outfield players?

[Challo]

LotusOmega375D said:

Apparently Arsenal have 1 Covid case (Odegaard). That’s it. Shameful exploitation of the rules. Does anyone seriously believe that a club the size of Arsenal cannot find 13 fit outfield players?

But these prem clubs are happy for youngsters to play in the league cup with no issue, but they suddenly can’t play in the league

[Glassman]

LotusOmega375D said:

Apparently Arsenal have 1 Covid case (Odegaard). That’s it. Shameful exploitation of the rules. Does anyone seriously believe that a club the size of Arsenal cannot find 13 fit outfield players?

Please refer to the Jurgen Klopp manual for Covid postponements.

[Ben Jk]

Funny how as soon as it’s Arsenal requesting a postponement there is uproar…. Other teams have been doing it for weeks.

Liverpool had the cup game postponed with 1 confirmed case.

[LotusOmega375D]

No it’s not. The thread began on 19 December.

[LotusOmega375D]

Just another point on this. Do you all know that there are no PL matches at all scheduled for the last weekend of January? Why not play a load of the postponed matches then?

[48k]

LotusOmega375D said:

Just another point on this. Do you all know that there are no PL matches at all scheduled for the last weekend of January? Why not play a load of the postponed matches then?

Jan 23 - Feb 7 is the winter break. Last season they ended up scheduling games during the winter break because of the backlog. This season they've removed replays from the FA Cup 3rd and 4th rounds to free up dates and if that's not enough I'm sure they'll end up scheduling games during the winter break too, although they are adamant they want to preserve the break because of the World Cup.

[GloverMart]

48k said:

LotusOmega375D said:

Just another point on this. Do you all know that there are no PL matches at all scheduled for the last weekend of January? Why not play a load of the postponed matches then?

Jan 23 - Feb 7 is the winter break. Last season they ended up scheduling games during the winter break because of the backlog. This season they've removed replays from the FA Cup 3rd and 4th rounds to free up dates and if that's not enough I'm sure they'll end up scheduling games during the winter break too, although they are adamant they want to preserve the break because of the World Cup.

February 4th - 7th is the next round of the FA Cup so most of them will be playing that weekend.

[A Winner Is You]

GloverMart said:

48k said:

LotusOmega375D said:

Just another point on this. Do you all know that there are no PL matches at all scheduled for the last weekend of January? Why not play a load of the postponed matches then?

Jan 23 - Feb 7 is the winter break. Last season they ended up scheduling games during the winter break because of the backlog. This season they've removed replays from the FA Cup 3rd and 4th rounds to free up dates and if that's not enough I'm sure they'll end up scheduling games during the winter break too, although they are adamant they want to preserve the break because of the World Cup.

February 4th - 7th is the next round of the FA Cup so most of them will be playing that weekend.

Does also seem a bit odd than none of the 32 3rd round games were requested to be postponed.