Premier League restarting

[Indy 3,298]

Personally think this could be an advantage, our three key home games are the next three...any if teams field their weakest sides it will be against us too.

I’d rather go down playing than points per game.

[Well b back 3,203]

EFL now going to restart 20/6. Plenty of games for Leeds to blow it yet lol

Championship season set to restart on 20 June as coronavirus lockdown eases

The Championship season is set to resume on 20 June, more than three months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The EFL said the date was "provisional" and "subject to the strict proviso that all safety requirements and government guidance is met".

There are 108 matches remaining, plus the play-off semi-finals and final.

No Championship fixtures have been played since 8 March, with the campaign suspended five days later.

The EFL said it is aiming to complete the Championship season with the play-off final "on or around 30 July", adding that there would be ongoing discussions on proposals to permit the use of five substitutes in the remaining fixtures and increasing matchday squads from 18 to 20 players. 

The announcement comes a day after the UK government gave the green light for domestic competitive sport to return, behind closed doors, from Monday.

Horse racing and snooker will each resume competitive action on Monday, while the Premier League is due to restart on 17 June.

"Following Saturday's announcement by the government to allow elite sporting events to return behind closed doors, the EFL has this weekend agreed to a provisional restart date of the weekend of 20 June 2020 for matches in the Sky Bet Championship," an EFL statement read. 

"After discussing various approaches and the importance of completing the season in a similar timeline to that of the Premier League to avoid any potential issues with promoted and relegated clubs, the Sky Bet Championship season is set to conclude with the Championship play-off final on or around 30 July 2020." 

Players have been back in training since 25 May, initially while following social distancing guidelines, and full contact training will begin next week.

EFL chair Rick Parry said: "We must stress that at this stage the date is only provisional and will only be confirmed once we have met all the requirements, as the health, safety and wellbeing of all participants, staff and supporters remains our top priority.

"Clearly completing the season in a safe manner is going to require a significant effort by all concerned and, whilst not unprecedented, it will need clubs to play a significant number of matches over a relatively short period of time."

Parry added that the EFL was in talks about broadcasting the remaining 108 games and play-offs either live on Sky Sports or via streaming services. 

Three rounds of coronavirus testing have been conducted to date across the 24 clubs in the second tier, with more than 1,000 tests carried out each time.

Two people at Hull City tested positive in the first round, while two unnamed Fulham players and Blackburn captain Elliott Bennett tested positive in the second round of results.

Preston North End striker Jayden Stockley was one of 10 positive Covid-19 tests across eight Championship clubs in the latest round of testing, revealed on Saturday.

When the season was paused, Leeds United were top of the table, one point clear of second-placed West Bromwich Albion.

Fulham, Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Preston North End occupy the four play-off spots, while Barnsley, Luton Town and Charlton Athletic are in the relegation zone.

Timeline: How did we get to this point?

• 8 March - Last games played in the Championship
• 13 March - EFL suspended until at least 3 April
• 19 March - Suspension extended until end of April
• 26 March - All football below National League expunged
• 22 April - National League clubs vote to end regular season
• 15 May - League Two season ended, League One undecided
• 25 May - Championship teams return to training

 

[A Load of Squit 5,161]

I know we've been given some rough dates when games will re-start and the date for the FA Cup game but has there been any news on when the detailed fixtures (dates & times) are being announced?

 

 

[Pugin 601]

I don't for one moment think that Leeds will blow up, and 10% of me would be sorry for heartbroken decent people who are involved in the club in any way.

But 90% of me thinks that it would her terrific entertainment and one of the highlights of the season 🙂

10% compassion; 90% pure schadenfreude.

[sgncfc 1,227]

To be fair, having watched the Amazon series about them last season with glee, it would be inhuman of me to want that to happen to them again. Wouldn't it?

[king canary 7,605]

22 minutes ago, sgncfc said:

To be fair, having watched the Amazon series about them last season with glee, it would be inhuman of me to want that to happen to them again. Wouldn't it?

I'd be a lot less keen to see them fail if we hadn't had a bunch of their fans on here saying how much they deserve it and how we would just have to get over relegation if it happened.

[Barry Brockes 147]

Sky Sports are reporting that the Premier League and clubs are meeting on Thursday to agree a process should the season be curtailed. It's reported that the Premier League will be pushing for PPG to 'complete the season' but an unnamed Premier League club owner has said that ten clubs want no relegation if the season is curtailed. Put Thursday in your diary folks although if Germany is anything to go by the odds are heavily stacked on the season here being completed. 

[DraytonBoy 147]

Having an agreement in place before the season re-starts is the most sensible thing to do and will stop any possible legal action.

[Capt. Pants 4,227]

4 minutes ago, Barry Brockes said:

Sky Sports are reporting that the Premier League and clubs are meeting on Thursday to agree a process should the season be curtailed. It's reported that the Premier League will be pushing for PPG to 'complete the season' but an unnamed Premier League club owner has said that ten clubs want no relegation if the season is curtailed. Put Thursday in your diary folks although if Germany is anything to go by the odds are heavily stacked on the season here being completed. 

It's entirely reasonable for clubs to know what they are faced with if the season can't complete. 

All I would say is the relegation battle looks like being fascinating, far more so than the top end of the table? Take that away and 3/4s of the clubs will be on the beach. I just can't believe many would want to pay to watch it.

[Jim Smith 2,317]

30 minutes ago, Barry Brockes said:

Sky Sports are reporting that the Premier League and clubs are meeting on Thursday to agree a process should the season be curtailed. It's reported that the Premier League will be pushing for PPG to 'complete the season' but an unnamed Premier League club owner has said that ten clubs want no relegation if the season is curtailed. Put Thursday in your diary folks although if Germany is anything to go by the odds are heavily stacked on the season here being completed. 

Interesting if those numbers are true because it would indicate that they can't get a vote through for PPG with relegation included. I can't recall how tight the table is and thus how many teams might waver when push comes to shove. You would think those in mid table would be reasonably safe in a curtailment scenario so could be persuaded but then there may be further complications in that some teams might be against PPG full stop as it would mean them missing out on Europe if it applied.

[Jim Smith 2,317]

28 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

Having an agreement in place before the season re-starts is the most sensible thing to do and will stop any possible legal action.

If they can get agreement on it. What is interesting is what happens if they can't. Do they insist on it before re-starting or just fudge it and hope it becomes irrelevant as they complete?

[sonyc 5,513]

Up to 10 teams against relegation if incomplete I'm reading. Only needs 7 to vote for such a clause.

I'm thinking at this point though, the season will complete.

Edited June 1, 2020 by sonyc

[Jim Smith 2,317]

6 minutes ago, sonyc said:

Up to 10 teams against relegation if incomplete I'm reading. Only needs 7 to vote for such a clause.

I'm thinking at this point though, the season will complete.

Looks like deadlock though doesn't it?

Depends on how strongly the other 10 feel on the no relegation thing (i.e. essentially expanding the league the following season) because you need 7 to block something but you need 14 to pass something. If the top 10 are vehemently against no relegation then you could get a situation where a vote for PPG with no relegation can't get through but conversely a vote for PPG with relegation also can't get through.

[Capt. Pants 4,227]

QPR not happy with the Championship restart, although Middlesbro' are

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52875186

 

[CANARYKING 637]

If there is no relegation presumably the EPL will save a ****load of money by not paying any parachute payments 

[king canary 7,605]

44 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

It's entirely reasonable for clubs to know what they are faced with if the season can't complete. 

All I would say is the relegation battle looks like being fascinating, far more so than the top end of the table? Take that away and 3/4s of the clubs will be on the beach. I just can't believe many would want to pay to watch it.

If clubs were arguing for no relegation even if the season completed then I think Sky/BT would have the right to push back.

However, arguing for no relegation only if PPG has to come into affect won't affect them.

[......and Smith must score. 1,342]

2 hours ago, Pugin said:

I don't for one moment think that Leeds will blow up, and 10% of me would be sorry for heartbroken decent people who are involved in the club in any way.

 

That must be way higher than decent people who support that club 😀

[DraytonBoy 147]

22 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

If they can get agreement on it. What is interesting is what happens if they can't. Do they insist on it before re-starting or just fudge it and hope it becomes irrelevant as they complete?

They have got to agree Jim, 'winging-it' won't wash with the FA, Sky or the EFL.

[sonyc 5,513]

7 minutes ago, CANARYKING said:

If there is no relegation presumably the EPL will save a ****load of money by not paying any parachute payments 

Would be my understanding. Also, they could (if they wished) provide a percentage of that for the whole football tree (would be great PR)

[Jim Smith 2,317]

5 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

They have got to agree Jim, 'winging-it' won't wash with the FA, Sky or the EFL.

But if they have an impasse then what do/can they do? They need 14 clubs to vote for something for it to pass.  

I must admit I don't know what the attitude of the other clubs towards the top would be (would they just be massively opposed to an expanded EPL for a year or two or swayed by a sense of fairness) and/or whether they may be swayed by legal advice/liability if the EPL does try to relegate based on PPG.

I suspect that if push came to shove those in the more mid table places could be bought off by the big boys!

[Capt. Pants 4,227]

8 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

But if they have an impasse then what do/can they do? They need 14 clubs to vote for something for it to pass.  

I must admit I don't know what the attitude of the other clubs towards the top would be (would they just be massively opposed to an expanded EPL for a year or two or swayed by a sense of fairness) and/or whether they may be swayed by legal advice/liability if the EPL does try to relegate based on PPG.

I suspect that if push came to shove those in the more mid table places could be bought off by the big boys!

Mid table clubs probably wouldn't favour a bigger league with more clubs, 4 or 5, facing relegation as it puts them in a slightly more perilous position for next season.

[hogesar 9,658]

2 hours ago, king canary said:

I'd be a lot less keen to see them fail if we hadn't had a bunch of their fans on here saying how much they deserve it and how we would just have to get over relegation if it happened.

Don't read WACCOE. The Leeds fans that have come on here are incredibly tame and well mannered in comparison.

As a sidenote, there are fans on that forum who genuinely believe WHEN the Championship restarts they'll score double-figures against the likes of Luton and Charlton, who apparently won't have done any exercise or fitness work during the lockdown whilst the Leeds lot are world-class athletes.

[king canary 7,605]

1 minute ago, hogesar said:

Don't read WACCOE. The Leeds fans that have come on here are incredibly tame and well mannered in comparison.

As a sidenote, there are fans on that forum who genuinely believe WHEN the Championship restarts they'll score double-figures against the likes of Luton and Charlton, who apparently won't have done any exercise or fitness work during the lockdown whilst the Leeds lot are world-class athletes.

I think a large chunk of them are in for a rude awakening if they do go up- quite a few seem to think they'll be in the hunt for the top 6 rather than being like Villa and in the relegation scrap.

[Jim Smith 2,317]

Clubs have apparently been told that as long as they can put out 15 from either their 25 man squad or their U21s list then they will not get punished for fielding weakened teams post re-start.

I guess it may work in our favour if we end up playing man City and Chelsea's U21s at the end of the season but I can't help thinking there are going to be some dodgy team selections which are going to see some "unexpected" results. thankfully Liverpool don't play too many of our rivals although they do have Villa near the end. 

[Mason 47 1,379]

15 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

Clubs have apparently been told that as long as they can put out 15 from either their 25 man squad or their U21s list then they will not get punished for fielding weakened teams post re-start.

I guess it may work in our favour if we end up playing man City and Chelsea's U21s at the end of the season but I can't help thinking there are going to be some dodgy team selections which are going to see some "unexpected" results. thankfully Liverpool don't play too many of our rivals although they do have Villa near the end. 

It wouldn't be Liverpool I'd be most worried about, their players will see this as their season and I think Klopp will be of the same mind. I think they'll want to win the maximum number of points available. 

For me the ones to watch are bigger teams currently in a state of flux- Chelsea, Man United, Spurs, Arsenal. 3 out of the 4 have a a young manager, and a team that hasn't really hit the heights this year; I think all four of those teams will be more focused on using the remaining games almost like a pre-pre-season to get some younger players some experience and experiment with systems to get the blocks in place for next year. Leicester will keep Man City honest.

[DraytonBoy 147]

48 minutes ago, king canary said:

I think a large chunk of them are in for a rude awakening if they do go up- quite a few seem to think they'll be in the hunt for the top 6 rather than being like Villa and in the relegation scrap.

This has always been my thinking should Leeds go up, survival will be the primary aim. 

[Jim Smith 2,317]

26 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

This has always been my thinking should Leeds go up, survival will be the primary aim. 

No reason why Leeds shouldn't give it a decent go. I think you will show more ambition than we have and Bielsa is a decent coach. My only concern (apart from obviously all teams have quality that can hurt you if you make mistakes) if I was you would be the physical demands of playing in the way Leeds do, in the premier league against teams that can do very little for large parts of games but then cut you open.

[DraytonBoy 147]

One of the biggest problems Leeds have had over the last three seasons is a lack of a clinical striker, there is talk of making a bid for Pukki should they go up and Norwich come down but I'm not sure he's the answer. I thought he'd do okay in the PL but he seemed to struggle after a promising start, Leeds do create plenty of chances so maybe he would thrive. 

[Canary Wundaboy 1,359]

If Leeds are going to go up at our expense, I'd rather they go up for a season where the money is vastly reduced, they cant have fans in the stadium and the transfer market is a mess so they can't strengthen and just get tonked week-in week-out. 

[Jim Smith 2,317]

19 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

One of the biggest problems Leeds have had over the last three seasons is a lack of a clinical striker, there is talk of making a bid for Pukki should they go up and Norwich come down but I'm not sure he's the answer. I thought he'd do okay in the PL but he seemed to struggle after a promising start, Leeds do create plenty of chances so maybe he would thrive. 

Pukki started missing chances after he injured his toe. Fairly widely suspected that he was not fully fit and was playing through the pain second half of the season but certainly he missed several really important chances at key points in games that he was putting away at the start of the season and indeed last season. It will be interesting to see if he looks back on song after the break he has now had. Still makes great runs and gets in great positions but his goal touch deserted him for a while.

I think leeds biggest problem in the prem will be the amount of energy you exert with your press and the fact that at that level, teams can sit in and then suddenly beat the press and be running at your back four very quickly. it will be interesting to see if Bielsa changes tactics if you do indeed get up.