Of course there will be those of you reading this shaking your heads, thinking that modern day players are soft and should be more than capable of playing twice a week – at least – especially given the money they receive, yet surely the focus should be on protecting the player for as long as possible and avoiding both over exposure and burn out, especially with players breaking through at such a young age now?
By making clubs to play multiple competitions in such quick succession, it does force managers to prioritise competitions and field weakened sides in certain games, and no one can blame clubs for then not putting as much effort into the Carling Cup as the Champions League. Let’s be realistic- which would you rather win?
Whilst he may come under criticism for telling fans not to waste their money on the Carling Cup tie, King Kenny does have a point – the prices of tickets these days are extraordinary, and for a fan to pay not only for the ticket but to travel to and from the game, you are looking at an amount of money that would keep Balotelli in fireworks for a year. Normal fans cannot justify spending this to watch a half-hearted youth team turn out because the first team are being rested due to the fixture pile up. The FA need to recognise this, and have no right bemoaning the attendance at games or the team fielded if they are not willing to give a little when it comes to both scheduling fixtures in the first place or rescheduling them due to unforeseen circumstances.
Yes the more successful a club the more fixtures they will have to play, and generally clubs like Chelsea and United have big enough and good enough squads to deal with this, and you will not hear either players nor fans complaining if in May they have to attend an FA cup final and the Champions League final in the space of a week, but for clubs to challenge at their peak right up until the end of the season, a little flexibility and help from the FA would not go amiss.
Written by Rebecca Knight for FootballFanCast.com