Boss talks on Premier League halt over Covid

PREMIER League managers have debated the merits of continuing the season amid a coronavirus resurgence which continues to wreak havoc with scheduling at all levels of the English game.

Aston Villa’s FA Cup tie against Liverpool last night went ahead (see left) even though nine players and five members of staff at the midlands club are understood to have tested positive for Covid-19.

Villa fielded a line-up featuring U/23 and U/18 players for the cup tie, but question marks surround their ability to fulfil the Premier League fixture against Tottenham on Wednesday and the following weekend’s game against Everton.

Spurs already face a punishing schedule due to European and other commitments plus the postponement of their recent match against Fulham, who suffered their own Covid outbreak.

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho said the situation facing his club was “impossible”, while his Newcastle and Leeds counterparts Steve Bruce and Marcelo Bielsa said there was a moral argument to suspend competition.

Bruce (right), whose club were forced to postpone a Premier League match against Villa last month, said: “We have had two players who were very, very sick and one or two members of staff who were nearly hospitalised. It’s not been easy but yes we’ll keep going along – financially it’s right but maybe morally it’s wrong.”

Top-flight clubs were emailed details of tightened protocols on Thursday, which include allowing Covid compliance officers access to dressingrooms where requested and making it mandatory for substitutes to wear face coverings when sat in the stands.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard said: “We have to toe the line, we have to try to keep playing. Safety must come first.”

The league clearly hopes these improved safety measures will enable it to continue, and if the season was to be paused it is difficult to see how it could be completed, with the rescheduled Euro 2020 due to start in June allowing no room for manoeuvre.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche suggested players could be vaccinated and to plough the money saved on testing into the NHS.

The Clarets boss said: “I appreciate some people will be surprised by that comment and people will say: ‘Why should footballers get vaccinations?’

“But the amount of money being spent on testing in the Premier League, if that was channelled back into the NHS and into the vaccination system, surely that’s a better place to be than continually testing footballers.”