No rest for the wicked
Stop flogging our game’s top talents
ALLISTAIR McCAW oozes positivity. In his position as one of the world’s foremost sports performance coaches, specialising in mindset and leadership culture, it kind of comes with the territory.
This South African bundle of positive energy travels the world from his Florida base to impart his advice and methods to individuals and organisations as diverse as Paris St Germain and Scottish Hockey.
But he was stopped in his tracks this week when I told him that Joe Aribo had just become the most used footballer on the planet over the course of a season that finally finished when the final whistle went in Scotland’s Nations League clash with Armenia.
On hearing that the Rangers and Nigeria midfielder had played in 70 matches, his first sentence in reply contained the words ‘wow’ and ‘insane’.
Aribo’s Ibrox team-mate Glen Kamara’s appearance for Finland against Bosnia on Tuesday meant he had played 64 matches this season and Celtic’s Callum McGregor’s 90 minutes for his country in Yerevan was his 63rd of this campaign. He would even have played more had he not missed two games in January after smashing his cheekbone.
McCaw reckons this relentless run of games will be to the long-term detriment of careers and the fact someone who trades in positive mindset and in training the brain to eradicate negativity feels like that should be taken seriously.
The international matches shoehorned into the end of such a gruelling season took no notice of the well-being of players who were clearly knackered and probably resulted in some of the shock results we witnessed.
Obviously with the World Cup being switched to November to combat the Qatar heat, the calendar had to be shuffled. But that didn’t help the players and it was no surprise that they were dropping like flies by the end of four games in 12 days. Every athlete knows that quality rest is as vital to optimum performance as hours on the training pitch and in the gym. Yet for the likes of Aribo to have played a game every five days since last July, it’s hard to see where his body had time to adequately recover in between matches and that could have consequences in the coming season.
Another word used by McCaw the other day was ‘burnout’.
This guy has seen it all too often and has spent many long days, weeks and months trying to repair the damage incurred in athletes who have mentally as well as physically drained their batteries. Players want to play. That’s been hardwired into them from when they were kids playing for the love of the game and nothing more. But managers and the sports science teams who have become ever more influential need to be careful because there’s a danger that overused players will hit the wall. As for FIFA and UEFA, it’s obvious they couldn’t care less about supporters’ welfare – the treatment of Rangers, Eintracht, Liverpool and Real Madrid fans in Sevilla and Paris proved that yet again last month – but it would also seem players are way down their list of priorities. “As a top athlete, that [number of matches] must eventually catch up with you and you eventually pay for it,” McCaw told me. “It might not be this season, but you eventually pay for it in the seasons to follow.” Listen to him. Stop flogging them until they drop.
November and December and a different-looking season because of the World Cup in Qatar.
None of the Big Six meet in crunch games on the final weekend of November 12/13 before players report for the World Cup. Arsenal, Chelsea, City and United, Tottenham and Liverpool have been kept apart in line with the FA request to avoid Super Sunday games.
They’re all back for Boxing Day after a 43-day break. But it is also a full-on season with back-to-back Champions League weeks and the final group matches played in the first week of November when they are usually concluded in December.
There is an international break in September for two more Nations League games plus the Carabao Cup that starts in August, with the third round in November.
The final day of the Premier League is on May 28, the FA Cup final is June 3 while the Champions League final is a week later on June 10. No wonder managers and players are worried about burn-out. It will be a season like no other.