It is not very often that you see Arsene Wenger get angry, but in Arsenal pre-match press conference this morning he got very animated when talking about why the season is starting one week early to try and ease the congestion at Xmas….
“I think it is a massive mistake for England to start one week earlier because you have no Christmas break,” he said on the official Arsenal website. “I don’t know who came up with the idea that one game less at Christmas deserves one week holiday less, especially when you have a European Championship after the season.
“The difficulty nowadays is to find holidays for the players. In the FIFA rules, you have to give four weeks holiday to your players. Soon, if you want to do that, you start the season with the youth team because all your players should be on holiday when you start the season.
“If you make it earlier and the competition lasts longer… next season the European Championship plays with 24 teams and that makes the competition last longer. It lasts nearly a month now. So it will finish later and we will start the season earlier and that means the players have no holiday.
“I don’t know why we weren’t consulted,” added Wenger. “These kinds of decisions are taken in meetings where we are not involved. But a natural rest for a player – every doctor tells you that – from the micro-contusions on the bones takes six weeks to heal out completely.
“You had that in England before but no player gets that anymore at the top level. They get two to three weeks.”
It is a bit hard to understand. Look at Alexis Sanchez. Last summer he left Real Madrid and went with Chile to the World Cup Finals where he played four games as his team made the last 16. Then he came to Arsenal and was thrown in immediately and ended up playing 52 games in his first campaign in the Premier League. Then he goes straight off to play in the Copa America, and Chile go all the way to winning the Final after extra time and penalties. He must be exhausted. Football today is a lot more demanding then it was a couple of decades ago and that is proven by the continuous injuries sustained by the players.
If they are going to make the international tournaments longer and longer than perhaps we should start looking at reducing the amount of teams in the Premiership again to shorten the season just a little bit?
Wenger is right on this one.
Hard to take an article serious when you make an utterly stupid mistake, ‘Look at Alexis Sanchez. Last summer he left Real Madrid’.
He left BARCA
BARCELONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well FIFA is both corrupt and an ass
Sepp has a big ass and he also speaks out of his ass..
Sepp should just go and do the footballing world a favour.
One word to describe FIFA ” bias”!
Two words corruped and bias. Let UEFA take over for the sack of football.
What i really dont understand is why sepp blatter isn’t behind bars?
Yeah! the man definitely belongs in a zoo.
The EPL should be taken down to at least 18 teams they come up and they often go straight back down. They also cost the footballing world money on parachute payments that could be used on grass roots football.
@ Admin
Alexis played for Barcelona not Real Madrid
FIFA needs a complete “overhaul” to weed out all the corrupt elements!
FIFA needs weed to overhaul the corrupt elements.
Goodnight all and cheer our team onto success this season. The Emirates should be a fortress not a library. If you go to any game this season please come back without a voice. GOYG
UEFA/FIFA no doubt have corrupt money hungry shizers in their midst but I do not enjoy the Wenger winging.
Just Get on with it!
I know, it’s a very hard life for professional footballers but they will cope I’m sure.
#coalMiners
#signSomeF@ckingTalentandMoveTheClubForward
I’m usually on Wengers side ..but with the lifestyles and money these individuals are afforded maybe Arsene should try moaning less. Tell their problems to minimum wage persons breaking a sweat from 9 to five every week and probably cant even afford a two week holiday never mind four weeks. And we’re not even touching on the truly less fortunate. Even middle class lifestyle hardly what you’d call a picnic compared to famous sports athletes. Sure with everything we get to see on Arsenal player and youtube nowadays these boys seem to be on one giant holiday, they’ll soon have all the time in the world to spend their millions on however many holidays. Obviously for health reasons they need rest but as a manager that can be your responsibility.
Well said. I have just got a new job that pays me 50-60k a year and this is the first time in my life that I might be a regular at the Emirates. Some people don’t live in the real world.
Congrats on new job.
£50-60K a year! Your rich my friend!
@yingYang69. Spot on. As I said, save it! Your names Wenger not Whinger!
#relativity
Thank you YingYang69
Congrats Andrew on that new job!
Thank you Gigi2
#loan
Don’t let Ivan find out
#warchest
Yep, I agree 100%.
Let’s be practical, if Wenger, other managers and the clubs were that bothered about players getting enough recovery time, they could cut out these meaningless out of season “trophies” such as the Emirates Cup. But, hang on, that would mean a few less pounds in the coffers, and that would never do would it!
Every year I get more disillusioned by football, I no longer get the same buzz from watching as I did 20 years ago, I just look at the players and think, “you’re getting paid £100k + per week for kicking a ball about”, it’s gone beyond all sense and reason.
The above was in relation to YINGYANGS post
Corruption is everywhere. Platini should take over….got a little more faith as he was a omayer that he won’t turn into a corrupted one
I believethe one week early is to divert the focus off fifa corruption allegation not only for the purpose of one matchday off during christmas period, and i know Wenger knows this but refuse to bring up the subject.
Players are a product under FIFA, assets to be exact. Holidays would only minimise profits. If you think about it, we consumer are the problem. Our demand for the game itd what changing FiFAs target