Footballers and CoronaVirus

[Greenlander]

Has he just melted away into the terrace?

[Furtho]

Not an impact of covid on footballers, but on fans: in accordance with covid-related guidelines from the Japanese government, the J-League has been very cautious about particular aspects of fan behaviour and for a lengthy period supporters were allowed to attend matches but were not permitted to chant (airborne disease and all that). This is only just changing now with a reintroduction of vocal support, but with a number of restrictions in place - chief among them being that fans who want to sing must still wear masks. The demands of compliance with that requirement in the height of a punishing Japanese summer made an impression on this Tokyo Verdy supporter at the end of his team's J2 match against Ventforet Kofu over the weekend.

https://twitter.com/cm16raider/status/1561337467437203456

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/shirleymush/status/1510650943028838400

[Patrick Thistle]

John Toshack reported as being very ill with covid. He is in hospital in Spain.

[Satchmo Distel]

Burnley and Watford are playing today at the 3rd attempt. Fingers crossed?

[Simon G]

Not in the same way, but I followed a few Covidiots and after days and days of seeing so much crap I eventually just unfollowed them and blocked the really bad ones.

It gave me an enormous wave of relief after doing it.

[Patrick Thistle]

I started following David Cotterill on Twitter when he signed for Barry. He had been open about mental health issues and wanted to help other people. Over the last few weeks his tweets have been spiralling into the conspiracy rabbit hole. Now he's posting stuff about how pharma get rich off sick people and how Joe Rogan should have a platform because free speech etc.

I've been tempted to respond but it looks like he is gaining a following and I don't want a social media pummeling from covidiot trolls.

Reading his vaccine scepticism certainly isn't helping my mental health.

[Satchmo Distel]

The EPL is supposed to be issuing new rules during the midseason break. Could be interesting or just another rule for BRCs to dodge.

[Capybara]

He's retweeted David Wheater, who seems to already be there.

I didn't know that about David Wheater. That's a real shame.

[Patrick Thistle]

Judging by his tweets, David Cotterill is heading deeper into covid scepticism. He's retweeted David Wheater, who seems to already be there.

[Snake Plissken]

Burnley vs Watford off.

Let's see, our next game is... Arsenal. They haven't had any problems fielding a squad recently have they?

[Satchmo Distel]

Yet the Beeb chooses this particular postponement to say "enough is enough"

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60028973

[To be fair, the article includes a few caveats to that, but it says nothing about extending the season, just that "the season must finish on 22 May" - er, says who?? World Cup is in November]

[Snake Plissken]

Yeah, barely had 14 fit players to face Huddersfield last week, then Newcastle nicked one of them so with Saturdays game being off I think that it was inevitable that this would be next. I suspect Clarets are trying to avoid a situation like the original game, where Watford called it off three hours before kickoff.

[Gangster Octopus]

Burnley are poorly...

[Snake Plissken]

Like the "Burnley don't have undersoil heating" thing before Christmas, it literally takes two minutes to check these things.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I'm... not sure what else you expect from that lot.

(Although your point stands.)

[Snake Plissken]

Just as an aside and an indicator of the quality of football journalism when not being fed lines by the BRCs, the TalkShite reporter on the Clarets postponement said that if we haven't got enough players, we shouldn't have sold Chris Wood this week and anyway, we can fill the gap with a recall of currently on-loan U23 striker Joel Mumbongo. And then got quite annoyed when it was pointed out that we didn't have much choice in the former and the latter won't be much use as he's currently on crutches having done his MCL.

[Satchmo Distel]

Here's my thread on that theme:

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/for...aced-by-a-club

[Sporting]

In 1998 Leek played 6 games in 8 days:

"Following a decent first half of the 1997-98 campaign, the Blues sank into the relegation zone after failing to win a game in the first two and a half months of 1998 and Ward became only the fourth manager in Leek's history to be given the sack. Player coach Ray Walker was put in temporary charge on 17 March but five games later ex-Stoke City and England star Mike Pejic was drafted in with a brief to keep the club in the League with just eight games to play. Those games included six matches in the final eight days of the season and Pejic's influence saw the team drag itself through the final five games in six days to achieve the objective on the last day of the campaign."

http://www.mossleyweb.com/Clubs2006~...bsLeekTown.htm

[Satchmo Distel]

They could play Villa or Watford on FA Cup 4th round weekend, in theory, and one of them or Everton in a European week. Spurs are out of Europe* as well so that helps. Leicester is really the one that will be tricky to arrange but it's possible Leicester might be focused on the Cups by then if league Top 7 is unlikely.

Thinking about which other clubs would be really struggling to arrange games: West Ham and the 4 CL teams, I'd have thought, although Man City could field a reserve side and beat most others (the other 3 CL sides not so much).

*COVID related, or using COVID as a pretext to be kicked out of a tournament they didn't want to play in.

[Snake Plissken]

Off the top of my head Watford, Spurs, Villa, Leicester... So one, maybe two? The Watford rearranged game is scheduled for this Tuesday, and I don't know if that will go ahead.

Edit: Missed out Everton.

[Sporting]

Are the games in hand vs. teams not in European competitions?

[Snake Plissken]

Midweeks. Practice for the Championship.

[Sporting]

When are Burnley going to be able to play their games in hand?

[Satchmo Distel]

Burnley v Leicester is off; Covid in the home side, and/or a fuck you to Newcastle.