MIND THE GAP WHEN THE CUP RUNNETH OVER

IT IS impossible to be early at Heathrow airport. Oh, your pilot might say you are. If by some miracle your plane is plucked out of its holding pattern prematurely and touches down ahead of schedule, your pilot will rush to announce this wonderful news. But then your parking space won’t be free, or the jetty will be late to arrive and you will disembark exactly at the time intended, if not later. This is because Heathrow’s schedule is now so packed that there is no room for anything to go right, or wrong. Turn up early, nothing is ready. Turn up late, you disrupt the day’s plan. It is the same for football. The winter break was working nicely until Watford’s replay with Tranmere was postponed. Now the schedule is in chaos, with Watford perhaps needing to play four games in nine days if they progress to the fourth round. The gap that was shoehorned in to allow teams close to two weeks between Premier League matches required every fixture to be played like clockwork and then it rained for three days straight in the North West and Prenton Park became a bog. English football would like to ape Germany’s ordered Bundesliga campaign but will do next to nothing to accommodate it. There is still a superfluous second leg Carabao Cup semi-final, there are still replays in the early FA Cup rounds. Watford have even been forced to sell tickets for their tie with Manchester United, without knowing whether they’ve made it through round three. No doubt they will be branded arrogant, but it is the only logistical option. Just a single postponement has thrown the schedule through a loop. If that doesn’t demonstrate the madness, nothing will.