Fixture Shambles

Iang87

Am i the only one who completely feels sorry for Tottenham this week. They Had to play away on Monday night.
They have to play Uefa Cup at home tonight.
They have to play their biggest game of the season on sunday.

3 Games in 6 days whereas United got to play Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday

Anyone else think its a complete shambles and also i would love to know what ferguson would have to say if it was united in this current position.

PHB

He'd probably say that the people who decide the fixture lists are just utter idiots who haven't a clue what they are doing, and have a favoritism towards certain clubs. United and Spurs certainly aren't one of those clubs. It is a joke though, then again, I'd have prefered to play Inter on Wednesday and then have a day less for Spurs.

Nothing that the PL can do about the UEFA Cup on Thursday, thats the way it is, but them playing on monday is a joke. Just like United playing a late Sat game is stupid.

Any team with a European tie that week should be playing their game at the very latest on Sat at 3 pm.

Frisbee

Iang87 wrote: »

Am i the only one who completely feels sorry for Tottenham this week. They Had to play away on Monday night.
They have to play Uefa Cup at home tonight.
They have to play their biggest game of the season on sunday.

3 Games in 6 days whereas United got to play Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday

Anyone else think its a complete shambles and also i would love to know what ferguson would have to say if it was united in this current position.

They've had two days between each fixture.
That's what squads are for.
Generally happens to a few teams over the course of a season through matches being refixed, FA, Carling and Europeans Cups etc

_blank_

Every team knows, at the start of the season, what fixtures are coming up when.

The Carling Cup date is set, the UEFA Cup dates are set.

To be moaning about it at this stage is absolutely ridiculous.

redout

You must be the only one I am afraid as I sure as fuk dont give a flying hoot ! How many times has sides like United had to numerous games on the bounce because of being is so many competitions. It happens United every season. I am almost certain United went about 6-7 weeks this season with games midweek and weekend to catch up after Japan while the others did had a few breaks in between. Poor Harry can ask my arse !

Mitch Connor

Iang87 wrote: »

Am i the only one who completely feels sorry for Tottenham this week. They Had to play away on Monday night.
They have to play Uefa Cup at home tonight.
They have to play their biggest game of the season on sunday.

3 Games in 6 days whereas United got to play Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday

Anyone else think its a complete shambles and also i would love to know what ferguson would have to say if it was united in this current position.

Saturday - Tuesday - Sunday.
2 days off, game, 4 days off. (including travel to/from Italy)
Sunday - Thursday - Sunday.
3 days off, game, 2 days off.(no foreign trip)

So, over the course of the three games, united have 1 days rest extra and have to travel to another country. Shambles, lets have another dig at United.

ditpoker

redout wrote: »

You must be the only one I am afraid as I sure as fuk dont give a flying hoot ! How many times has sides like United had to numerous games on the bounce because of being is so many competitions. It happens United every season. I am almost certain United went about 6-7 weeks this season with games midweek and weekend to catch up after Japan while the others did had a few breaks in between. Poor Harry can ask my arse !

united missed two fixtures cos of their trip to japan... dont think it threw their organisation out by "6-7 weeks" ... be sensible.

Iang87

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Saturday - Tuesday - Sunday.
2 days off, game, 4 days off. (including travel to/from Italy)
Sunday - Thursday - Sunday.
3 days off, game, 2 days off.(no foreign trip)

Shambles, lets have another dig at United.

ya thats the plan another dig at united i'm just stating its not very fair

Xavi6

Not an ounce of sympathy for a club who devalues a European competition by playing a bunch of youth teamers.

Mitch Connor

Iang87 wrote: »

ya thats the plan another dig at united i'm just stating its not very fair

how is it not fair? United only had two days rest before the Milan game, same amount of rest Spurs will get for the United game. Also, spurs threw out a weak side against Shaktar last round and got beaten, and will probably do the same tonight, so a lot of the bigger players will have had a week to rest. So unfair on United that....

invincibleirish

Suck it up tbh, Spurs of all teams have a large enough squad to cope with the demands of 3 games in 6 days.

Perhaps with the UEFA Cup/Europa league a case can be made for their knockout stages to be reduced to a one off tie with ET and penalties if necessary on the night. Might be cause for complaint from clubs who are playing away from home, but with some clever thinking over nominating the home team (Group winner vs CL drop-out perhaps) a compromise can be found.

As for the League Cup, begin that competition in early August and finish it just before or after Xmas,reduce Semi Finals to a one off game at a neutral venue.

invincibleirish

Xavi6 wrote: »

Not an ounce of sympathy for a club who devalues a European competition by playing a bunch of youth teamers.

Come off your high horse Xavi, not every team can afford to send out a reserve XI of expensive flops when fixture congestion occurs.

ITT-Pat

Regardless of everything else, Spurs should been playing Hull on Saturday

Xavi6

invincibleirish wrote: »

Come off your high horse Xavi, not every team can afford to send out a reserve XI of expensive flops when fixture congestion occurs.

No high horse. How many clubs would give their left one to be in the last 32 of a European competition? Playing in Europe is a privilege earned by a club and it sickens me that the likes of Spurs and Villa are prepared to just throw it away having gotten this far.

If City did anything like this I'd be livid.

redout

ditpoker wrote: »

united missed two fixtures cos of their trip to japan... dont think it threw their organisation out by "6-7 weeks" ... be sensible.

When United went to Japan they played two games in three days while the teams in England only played one game over the period United were in Japan and had 7-8 days of a break. Go check the fixtures if you dont believe me.

Man Utd over the period Dec 26 - Feb 1 then had to go on to play 11 games whilst there rivals played considerably less with Pool and Chelsea even less again if not for having cup replays.

26 Dec Stoke
29 Dec Boro
04 Jan Soton
07 Jan Derby
11 Jan Chelsea
14 Jan Wigan
17 Jan Bolton
20 Jan Derby
24 Jan Spurs
27 Jan WBA
31 Jan Everton

That works put at a game every 3.2 days over 36 days.

8 Pool Games (1 was a cup replay)
9 Chelsea Games (1 was a cup replay)
8 Arsenal Games

invincibleirish

Xavi6 wrote: »

No high horse. How many clubs would give their left one to be in the last 32 of a European competition? Playing in Europe is a privilege earned by a club and it sickens me that the likes of Spurs and Villa are prepared to just throw it away having gotten this far.

If City did anything like this I'd be livid.

Yeah but its all about priorities innit?

Spurs have relegation and LC to focus on, Villa have CL qualification to work towards. Yeah it undermines the competition but this is the age we live in, CL + PL takes priority above all? If this were last season and Villa were still lagging behind the CL places in 5th/6th then i'd imagine MON would prioritise the UEFA Cup over Stoke.

Surely you'd accept it if City were in the CL qualification dogfight in the PL and Hughes rested key players in Uefa Cup.

Xavi6

invincibleirish wrote: »

Surely you'd accept it if City were in the CL qualification dogfight in the PL and Hughes rested key players in Uefa Cup.

No I'd still be very pissed off. The Uefa Cup takes priority for me above anything, apart from if we were in the bottom three at this stage of the season.

A trophy is a trophy etc, and we haven't had one in a very, very long time. Sure I've said on numerous occassions that if us getting relegated meant we could win something of significance then I'd gladly take it.

invincibleirish

Fair enough but City have a large squad, they can rest key players and still have a strong first XI.

Villa have a small squad and lots of injuries and fatigue is already evident. I fully back MON in the squad he has chosen. Besides the likely first XI for this evening will still be strong with only the Fonz being the only youth player likely to start.

Perhaps next year Villa will have the size of squad necessary to challenge on multiple fronts.

mirwillbeback

Xavi6 wrote: »

No high horse. How many clubs would give their left one to be in the last 32 of a European competition? Playing in Europe is a privilege earned by a club and it sickens me that the likes of Spurs and Villa are prepared to just throw it away having gotten this far.

If City did anything like this I'd be livid.

Do City not put out a reserve standard team everyweek?

A team full of over rated prima donnas.

SuprSi

Xavi6 wrote: »

No high horse. How many clubs would give their left one to be in the last 32 of a European competition? Playing in Europe is a privilege earned by a club and it sickens me that the likes of Spurs and Villa are prepared to just throw it away having gotten this far.

If City did anything like this I'd be livid.

Completely disagree. Yes playing in Europe is a privilege earned by clubs and should be treated as such, but so is playing and staying in the Premiership. The reality of the situation is that a domestic cup win on Sunday will earn Spurs another go at the UEFA cup next season, with a team that Harry will have built. If Spurs achieve an aggregate win tonight, it earns nothing except more matches that have nothing to do with EPL survival, something which (Sunday aside) the team need to be focused 100% on.

I would love for Spurs to win the UEFA cup, but not at the expense of staying in the Premiership, so I'm perfectly happy to see a reserve team tonight and would look forward to seeing if the club has any potential first-team talent.

But on topic, the fixtures are a bit ridiculous but that's modern football, and unfortunately because the UEFA cup can't clash with the CL, anyone playing in it has to put up with matches closer to league matches than those playing in the CL.

Mitch Connor

Teams are used to playing Wednesday - Saturday enough, i don't see why Thursday - Sunday is that big a deal, same amount of rest between games.

therecklessone

I'm sick of listening to Harry Redknapp's excuses at this stage, and if what I heard during the week is correct then so are his bosses.

The fixture list was known from day one this season, would it be any fairer if we had to face Villa on Sunday who have to travel back from Moscow tonight? Because that could easiily have happened.

We faced the same situation last year, we played at home to Slavia Prague on the Thursday night before we faced Chelsea in the Carling Cup final...I don't recall Redknapp's predecessor complaining then, perhaps because he had more respect for the two competitions?

Redknapp wanted a shot at a bigger job, well he's got it...the money he's getting to spend comes in a large part from broadcasters (that would be Setanta who wanted the game vs Hull to be on Monday night), and the fixture congestion comes with a team that want to compete and win trophies.

I've no doubt if united were on the receiving end of this that SAF would be complaining, that wouldn't make it any more valid. Them's the breaks in modern football.

Oh, and I wonder will there be any sympathy for United if they reach the CL and FA Cup finals this year...fly back early Thursday morning from Rome to prepare for a 3pm kick off on Saturday? Seems like a similar task to me...

everdead.ie

If we weren't so close to relegation i'm sure he wouldn't be complaining he's just worried about the drop and rightly so if the club goes down it could be crippled for years

therecklessone

everdead.ie wrote: »

If we weren't so close to relegation i'm sure he wouldn't be complaining he's just worried about the drop and rightly so if the club goes down it could be crippled for years

Redknapp is fighting a PR battle IMHO, he's getting his excuses in for the possibility that we go down ("I told them it was a small squad, too many games, not possible etc etc")...and if he keeps us up it's "I've done a great job with a poor squad, considering the fixture congestion"

It's all about gaining leverage over Daniel Levy for the coming transfer window...and while I've little respect for the Chairman, that isn't going to blind me to Redknapp's tactics.

everdead.ie

While i agree there's a lot of truth in what you say I think there's also an element of protecting the players confidence as well so that he can get them performing in the league.

Daemos

Iang87 wrote: »

Am i the only one who completely feels sorry for Tottenham this week. They Had to play away on Monday night.
They have to play Uefa Cup at home tonight.
They have to play their biggest game of the season on sunday.

3 Games in 6 days whereas United got to play Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday

Anyone else think its a complete shambles and also i would love to know what ferguson would have to say if it was united in this current position.

You sound like Rafa complaining about Liverpool fixtures.

dreamers75

Stop winning games = less games.


easy really.

Bluetonic

It's nothing new at all. In 1985 Everton had to play the Cup Winners Cup final on Wednesday May 15th in Rotterdam against Rapid Vienna winning 3-1, then the following Saturday the 18th had to play the FA Cup final against Man Utd losing 1-0 after extra time. They used the same 11 for both games.

All this after winning a 42 game league by 12 points which had only ended the previous weekend playing mainly the same 11 for the whole season.