Player’s won’t be ready until end of June, warns Bruce
FORMER Huddersfield Town boss Steve Bruce says Premier League players would not be ready to resume the season until the end of June, insisting an earlier start would see them ‘fall down like a pack of cards’.
Provisional plans for Project Restart were for a June 12 resumption, though that looks to have hit a stumbling block with disagreements over neutral venues and concerns over player safety.
A June 19 date has now been mooted, but Bruce - who is now at Newcastle - says players will not be match fit until the end of the month, having been inactive since the middle of March.
“We’ve listened to what has been said and, with the precautions taken, we will get back to work and start phase one,” Bruce said. “Can we get to that stage where we can have all the players on the pitch together? We don’t know yet.
“Phase one will be mainly fitness work, four or five players on a pitch. Let’s see how we get on.
“You have to remember that they have had eight weeks off and that is probably the longest break some of these players have had in their careers.
“If we were doing pre-season, we would have six weeks and probably have six friendly games to get them ready for the first league match.
“So, we need a good stretch of time to get them ready. Certainly once we get into stage two, that is vitally important. We need enough preparation to get these players into shape or they are just going to fall down like a pack of cards.
“Most of the managers have the same concerns. We would need at least six weeks. I don’t see how we can play games until the back end of June.”
Bruce said that, providing all of his players and staff return negative tests for the virus, Newcastle will start group training on Tuesday.
FORMER Huddersfield Town captain Tommy Smith has spoken about the circumstances behind his departure from the club last summer.
The right-back was speaking on Instagram to his former manager Simon Grayson, who was in charge of the Terriers when the defender joined as a free agent after being let go by Manchester City in 2012.
Smith became a regular for Town during his seven years at the club, playing a key role in their promotion to the Premier League before taking the captain’s armband from Mark Hudson in the top flight.
Then-head coach David Wagner famously refused to set a target throughout Town’s promotion season in 2016/17 and Smith believes that was a key psychological driver in seeing the Terriers