Heading for the first team?
CAN YOUNG GUNS LIKE CIARON BROWN STEP UP TO THE PLATE NEXT TERM AS BLUEBIRDS COME TO TERMS WITH COST OF VIRUS?
PLUS
SCOTT JOHNSON ON HIS MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT RETURN TO ACTION
IT’S official; football, but not as we know it, will soon return and I don’t know how to feel about it if I’m honest.
For me, the normal ebb and flow of the football season goes as follows. Like everyone else, I’m very excited for the start of a new season. It’s sunny, there’s a new kit and some new players in that new kit.
Anything is possible too, and that feeling sometimes lasts longer some season’s than others. By the end of the season, like the players, I’m suffering football fatigue, but the break is always sufficient for that excitement to build back up again.
This break, although a comparable length, has felt nothing like the usual break, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, there have been far more pressing concerns to occupy everyone’s thoughts. That aside, the break was not off the back of a satisfactory, certain resolution either.
Everything, on and off the pitch, is up in the air. I appreciate that football is an industry that needs to be back up and running as soon as possible, but it just feels too soon.
As a society, we’re still in a comparable situation to the one that necessitated a lockdown and the halting of sport in the first place. We may be on the way down rather than on the way up and have a better understanding of Covid-19, but I assumed we would be further down the road before considering a restart.
I guess I’m with Watford captain Troy Deeney, who refused a return to training by reminding everyone: “I can’t get a haircut until mid-July, but I can go and get in a box with 19 people and jump for a header?” It’s hard to question his logic. Footballers are treated differently because they earn so much money, but that money is generated by these same players. Without players, there is no show, so looking after them should be a priority, not satisfying television deals. The return of football has less to do with sporting integrity than it does about money and the reality of that is pretty grim. The idea of a football family has been laid bare too, with the Premier League ploughing on without a care for teams further down the football food chain.
I appreciate that it must be hard to look out for each other when everyone stands to lose so much, but the selfserving way clubs have conducted themselves has also made for grim viewing.
League Two clubs want promotion, but no relegation, while League One are pushing for the play-offs to be expanded.
Making it up as they go along to suit themselves.
It should be noted that Cardiff have conducted themselves with great dignity and class during this period.
They have been a positive influence in the community and enthusiastic regarding proposals to complete the season.
Mehmet Dalman is on record stating that failing to finish the campaign would be a “travesty,” while also understandably criticising the complete absence of leadership from the authorities responsible.
“They’re all making a lot of noises and we’re getting lots of e-mails,” he told the Sunday Times,“but at the end of the day, the only thing they came back with is ‘it’s up to you guys to handle it.’ I don’t call that great leadership.”
When you bear in mind that the EFL were encouraging clubs to test their own staff, you get some understanding of what Dalman has to deal with and how hands off they have been throughout.
Cardiff are two points off the top six with nine to play. Their chances of breaking in to the top six have been significantly increased by the return of both Lee Tomlin and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
Neither would have played any part had the season ended on schedule, so Cardiff are beneficiaries of the break, while others will have seen their momentum halted.
Part of the problem is that its hard to relate the forthcoming games to those that have come before.
Losing away to Wigan on the opening day, with Neil Warnock in charge, feels like a few seasons ago now and bares little resemblance to what is still to come. I have major reservations about playing games without supporters present, fears that have not been allayed by the German games I have watched recently, but I know I’m going to have to get over that.
It will be a very long time before stadiums are packed to the rafters again. I know Italy are looking at plans to allow one in every three seats to be populated, but that would be far easier said
The idea of a football family has been laid bare, with the Premier League ploughing on without a care... Scott Johnson
than done and policed.
So, I’m conflicted. I’m not sure how to feel about the season resuming.
If it ensures the long-term future of the game, so be it. Something is also better than nothing, I guess, but I think excitement may dwindle when faced with the reality of the game in this form.
I don’t envy players having to play such a congested schedule against this backdrop, at the height of summer, without the benefit of a proper pre-season to adequately prepare them. It will also be a strange feeling for the primary concern to not be whether Cardiff win or lose, rather that no one contracts a potentially lifethreatening illness.
Hopefully everything will work out for the best, the return of football will give everyone a much-needed lift and Cardiff continue the steady progress they were making way back in March. Here comes a Football League European Championships, to deputise for the real thing.