Post-season matches in Asia

CallyRed said:
Manchester United are set to play two post-season games in Malaysia and Hong Kong immediately after the Premier League finishes in May.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn89yp78w93o
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I mean before people say "increased workload", Madrid and Liverpool players could play potentially upto 70 matches this season. Our players, not even close to that figure, two extra matches won't do them any harm. In seasons where we play a lower number of matches, I'm all for the club doing post season tours, quite frankly we need to make as much money as possible given the state we're in.
 
The sport as a whole is getting a bit ridiculous with the amount of games now.
 
Devil_forever said:
I mean before people say "increased workload", Madrid and Liverpool players could play potentially upto 70 matches this season. Our players, not even close to that figure, two extra matches won't do them any harm. In seasons where we play a lower number of matches, I'm all for the club doing post season tours, quite frankly we need to make as much money as possible given the state we're in.
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We don’t know that just yet. We’ve played 40 so far, have another 12 in the league, 2-7 in the EL, and another 1-4 in the FA cup.

That’s 55-63. And we have players who actually do play almost every match (e.g Dalot on 39 matches and Bruno on 38).

Either way though, it is what it is, like you said, we need to make money from somewhere.
 
Devil_forever said:
I mean before people say "increased workload", Madrid and Liverpool players could play potentially upto 70 matches this season. Our players, not even close to that figure, two extra matches won't do them any harm. In seasons where we play a lower number of matches, I'm all for the club doing post season tours, quite frankly we need to make as much money as possible given the state we're in.
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38 (league) + 15 (If we reached Europa final) + 3 (EFL Cup) + 6 (if we reached FA Cup final)

That's a 62 game season on the back of an international summer last year with the Euros.

That's ignoring other international matches.

It's an insane number of games already. The players (for all their faults) need a rest.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
38 (league) + 15 (If we reached Europa final) + 3 (EFL Cup) + 6 (if we reached FA Cup final)

That's a 62 game season on the back of an international summer last year with the Euros.

That's ignoring other international matches.

It's an insane number of games already. The players (for all their faults) need a rest.
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Whilst players need a rest.. the reason why teams have such big squads.

Its all relative as well right?

The teams that are playing the most games, have players who are paid the most.

If we finish 15th, not win any cup, how many games will we have next season?
Will players want to join us, if we say to them, you will get 50k less than if you join a CL club but, you will also play 20 games less.

Who do you think the player will join?
 
Fm lower league money hack. Organise rakes of friendlies against bigger teams and play them at home. You can make a few extra hundred k and get a few more free transfers in that might be valuable after a season with you. Sell on and repeat as you go up the leagues. That and as many loans as you can afford...
 
Most PL footballers play far too many games, plus international qualifiers and tournaments. A lot of them are going to be burnt out before they hit 30. I can see Saka being one of those; he's only 23 and already played almost 230 games for Arsenal/England.
And, Amorim needs to spend a lot of time on the training ground with this squad in the summer instead of wasting time jetting around the globe, just to make a few £m, which will probably equate to Casemiro's salary for a couple of months, undoubtedly picking up more injuries along the way. If we have to play these games in Hong Kong, they should send Heaton, Evans, Lindelof and a bunch of U17s.
 
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Ali Dia said:
Fm lower league money hack. Organise rakes of friendlies against bigger teams and play them at home. You can make a few extra hundred k and get a few more free transfers in that might be valuable after a season with you. Sell on and repeat as you go up the leagues. That and as many loans as you can afford...
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We could also massively abuse the trial system. Invite 30 randoms for a week long trial. Get the star rating as soon as they arrive then bin them off. We could trial 150 players per day using this innovative approach.

Imagine that in real life.

"I'm really pleased to be on trial at Manch...."
"The door's over there" :lol:
 
romufc said:
Whilst players need a rest.. the reason why teams have such big squads.

Its all relative as well right?

The teams that are playing the most games, have players who are paid the most.

If we finish 15th, not win any cup, how many games will we have next season?
Will players want to join us, if we say to them, you will get 50k less than if you join a CL club but, you will also play 20 games less.

Who do you think the player will join?
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That's next season. I'd even go far as saying, we should be organising a series of friendlies throughout next season (home and away) to make up for the lack of European matches (assuming we don't qualify).

But this season, whatever happens, it's been a long campaign. A rest would do everyone good (especially if we, by some miracle win the FA Cup and/or Europa League.)

From a fans perspective, I'm not convinced anyone that pays a insane amount of money to watch a completely jaded squad play two more matches is gonna be really excited.
 
I'm sure one or two players will sustain serious injuries in these meaningless games.
 
Another terrible development in the modern game.

Taking the pre-season games to particular countries solely because they're prioritising financial reasons above the teams preparations for the upcoming season was a bad enough development.

But now this latest one of squeezing in visits to the other side of the world before the players start their international commitments is another grim part of the modern game.

9 month season, then club friendlies, then international commitments. Short break. And then straight back to pre-season club friendlies ahead of another 9 month season.

And yet I know full well I'll hear and read this linked to things like the FA Cup dropped replays, and people saying 'on the one hand they're complaining about supposedly playing too much, and then they're playing these overseas friendlies - it's all hypocrisy'.

Which is BS. As the ones complaining that there's too much being asked of the players are the players, managers, medical staff, medical reports into it. And they're not the ones then adding ever more games - that's the money men behind the scenes who just want more and more games to generate more money. There's no hypocrisy, just a massive clash in interests and priorities between player welfare on one side and the business and financial interests on the other.
 
Hong Kong considering what has been going on there over the past few years? Sigh...
 
CallyRed said:
He's lined up a flight with 5 stops. Will take 5 days to get there.
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Flights are costly.

Restart this service

London-to-Calcutta.jpeg
 
Not going to cry about the players having to play a couple of extra games when hundreds of staff at the club are losing their jobs. Cash grabs like this become more important when you are flirting with relegation and not getting that Champions League money.
 
Monmouthshire Red said:
Most PL footballers play far too many games, plus international qualifiers and tournaments. A lot of them are going to be burnt out before they hit 30. I can see Saka being one of those; he's only 23 and already played almost 230 games for Arsenal/England.
And, Amorim needs to spend a lot of time on the training ground with this squad in the summer instead of wasting time jetting around the globe, just to make a few £m, which will probably equate to Casemiro's salary for a couple of months, undoubtedly picking up more injuries along the way. If we have to play these games in Hong Kong, they should send Heaton, Evans, Lindelof and a bunch of U17s.
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And yet many players perform to a far higher standard when they are >30.

Most of this is down to managers/ head coaches for instance not rotating or using their bench and even when they do they bring players on very late into a game. There’s a reason clubs are allowed such big squads yet many of PL clubs have numerous players in their squads who barely get 1000 minutes on the pitch during a season.

Clubs medical departments know far more about a player’s physical state than they ever did yet HCs continually risk players who clearly like Saka were either in or very close to the Red Zone. When Arteta lost Saka and now Havertyz it’s too late and he has to find solutions.

Arteta it seems took the players to Dubai and rather than a bit of R&R the players were in effect put through punishing schedules.

In the day the pitches were mud baths, the tackles industrial but training once pre season was out the way was no where near as intense and yes I know it’s a lot faster now but there must be some sort of lessons from yesterday year

In 1967/68 Man Utd played in 55 competitive games , I don’t think that Utd entered the league cup that season. Even with Arsenal getting through to the semi finals this season they will now play a maximum of 60 competitive games and that’s assuming they get to the final of the CL last season they played 51
 
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Not win to win situation for the fans and players. If they bring the first team players like Bruno, Amad, and etc, then they will be exhausted from long season, which risking them to get injuries. If they bring the reserves team, then it’s like scamming the fans or whoever bought the tickets.
 
JE-365 said:
Not win to win situation for the fans and players. If they bring the first team players like Bruno, Amad, and etc, then they will be exhausted from long season, which risking them to get injuries. If they bring the reserves team, then it’s like scamming the fans or whoever bought the tickets.
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Yeah basically. In reality they'll bring as few of the first team as they can get away with.
 
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