Celtic stars set to miss Scotland summer tour
CELTIC’S Scotland stars are likely to skip the national team’s summer tour — as captain Scott Brown backs a campaign to guarantee footballers four weeks off a year. As Parkhead coach Chris Davies warned that players risked being ‘burnt out’ by being shackled to what is effectively a 12-month schedule, Brown revealed his involvement in a PFA Scotland campaign to ease the load. The SFA have organised summer friendlies against Peru and Mexico for
May 29 and June 2, respectively, extending an already long season.
With Champions League and Europa League qualifiers then kicking off in late June, it leaves little time for recuperation.
‘Last year, I got six days off,’ revealed Brown. ‘I’ve had a winter break in Dubai and people might think of the break — but we got battered every day in training.
‘It’s about keeping our bodies going and two weeks isn’t long enough for the young lads, people like Kieran Tierney.
‘Momentum will get him through pretty much whatever, but he needs rest, he needs recovery, he needs time away from football just to go and enjoy his life.
‘He’s not a robot. He just can’t keep going season after season after season. You need time to chill and recharge.
‘You can do it now and then, but it is more mentally than anything, because you are constantly coming in, games Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, or whenever it is.
‘We are in a great place just now and everything is going well for us at Celtic. But it is hard when you don’t get that break to recharge and go again.
‘The PFA are trying to help us out with a four-week holiday. For us, that would be phenomenal.
‘Especially the Celtic lads in Scotland. We’ve probably not had that in a long time because of the early starts in Europe, Champions League qualifications. The quicker we can get that, the better.
‘We managed to get a winter break and that was down to our gaffer fighting the corner for us.
‘That is 42 games Kieran played before the new year and most people, even down in England, they don’t play that either.
‘For him to play that, it is the most in European football, so our lads have been getting battered more than anyone.
‘It’s PFA-led. They said they were going to push this on and see if they could get it done — and here’s hoping they can.’
Brown sounded less than enthusiastic about the prospect of Celtic’s troupe of Scotland stars travelling to Mexico and Peru for friendlies between the end of a gruelling season and the beginning of a high-pressure Champions League qualification campaign, saying only: ‘At the time, we’ll sit down and speak to the manager and see what happens.’
Assistant manager Davies said he hoped that the SFA would see sense when it comes to dragging Celtic’s players halfway around the globe for meaningless friendlies.
He argued: ‘I think there are good relations there between Celtic and the association.
‘I am confident that we can work together and make sure we are doing the right thing. A bit of common sense.
‘The players can’t play the 12 months non-stop, that’s for sure. We don’t want our players burnt out by non-stop football.
‘It is not fair on them and it is not fair on the product that we provide if the players are not at their peak. We don’t want them being burnt out by the schedule.
‘I have only just found out about that (the summer tour), but it is something that the manager will have a look at. I am not sure exactly what his take on it will be.
‘Our priority will be that our players are not burnt out by the schedule and they do need a rest period. ‘On the other hand, I understand it is an international team and they are entitled to put their fixtures wherever it suits them in their calendar. ‘There is always this club/country situation, but, hopefully, we can come to a situation that suits us.
‘You can only assume that they have their reasons for picking that. I don’t know exactly why but I am not in their organisation.
‘Whatever comes of it, I just hope it is a reasonable situation for our players and that they are protected — because that is our priority.’