WHY SAY ANYTHING?

At last! The Premier League is getting a winter break! Starting in 2019 there will be a ten day hiatus in proceedings in February.

The idea is that this break will help England to better compete in future World Cups and European Championships, (better players would be a much bigger help).

Without wishing to be killjoys on this subject we recently noted that the English players in Russia for this World Cup will have spent less minutes on a football pitch than ANY other nation, including the ones who had a break!

Now this is mainly due to the fact that very few of them can be considered regulars for their clubs as those pesky foreigners keep coming and taking their places owing to the fact that they are better than them! So what difference is a break going to make?

None really, but let’s let the FA have their moment of glory. Only when this “revolutionary” idea fails to result in the World Cup being paraded round the streets of England will the FA, and many others, realise that it is ability, skill, talent and teamwork which achieves the most in almost any team sport. Not only that but the vast majority of players hate not being able to play football so will not be at all thankful for an enforced break.

Happy Harry…..

Harry Kane has signed a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur. It is for the next six years and will see his pay rise significantly by about £100,000 per week. He will also be paid bonuses depending upon performance in each competition which all makes a complete mockery of what used to be the pay ceiling at White Hart Lane.

Poor Daniel Levy must be dazed and confused. Having spent years underpaying the players it was finally brought to light by Danny Rose, who pointed out how Spurs stars were the poor relations in the top six.

This led, indirectly, to the size of Levy’s own pay packet being leaked to the press and this information put him quite firmly as the top earner at the club.

He has obviously had recent nightly visits from ghosts who have helped him see the error of his ways and Tottenham players can now look forward to being paid almost as much as the others in the top six teams!

The overriding question, however, is can Mauricio Pochettino finally relinquish the role of Bob Cratchit?

Phil Neville, successful England manager…..?

So Phil Neville thinks that Lucy Bronze would be a good addition to the men’s game. That’s quite ironic really because there were many occasions throughout his career, particularly at Manchester United, when we thought he would have been a good addition to the women’s game!

However, after beating Russia, England’s women now sit at the top of their group, two points ahead of Wales who they play next, with three games left. It is all, as they say, in their own hands and World Cup qualification looks to be a probability now, rather than a possibility.

They do have to be a little careful as second place may not be good enough as it only guarantees a place in the play-offs and, as we all know, anything can happen in those situations.

Good luck to them anyway and well done to Phil Neville, a genuine Mister Nice Guy who has finally found his level.

And finally…..

This international injury window, because it takes in the World Cup, is a long one. It has, however, got off to a promising start.

Fred, who managed to get through the season with Shakhtar Donetsk without sustaining anything of note was injured in training with Brazil and may miss the opening games.

Manuel Lanzini, who successfully negotiated 29 games for West Ham last season, will now miss the World Cup thanks to rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, also in training, and this means that he will now probably miss the first half of next season as well. The Argentine is unlikely to play any competitive football until 2019.

Vincent Kompany, who had successfully come through a few games for Manchester City pulled up in Belgium’s game against Egypt and will also likely miss the first couple of games in the tournament.

What is it about international duty which suddenly sees players succumbing to injury when there has been no sign of it at their club, (present Kompany excepted, of course).

If anybody has a decent theory as to why this is the case please feel free to share it with the rest of us in the comments section below.