Cummings and Goings Have Different Sides To The Story
See you on the other side.
It started life as a simple phrase that ended an email a little more interestingly than ‘Regards’ or ‘Cheers’ and was intended to offer some much-needed positivity in these times. It also implies – although maybe I’m thinking too much about it – that there will be another side of this pandemic and that both the recipient and the sender of the email will both still be there when that time comes and that they won’t have succumbed to this awful virus, or been run over by a short-sighted government advisor, before then.
But in football, the same phrase could have that and so many other meanings:
See You On The Other Side
Of course, it could just be meant in the way it was intended. To create a positive tone and to show solidarity with everyone else as we are all in this together (the 99% anyway; we all know the others who aren’t in this with us at all) and that we’ll come through it together when there is a return to some normality and we’ll all be there. There is this lovely image in my head of the clubs all looking out for each other, the bigger ones protecting the vulnerable and weak and sharing some of the burden, and – although it will never happen – it’s still nice to think it might until that time when it’s obvious it won’t.
See You On The Other Side (of the team sheet)
June 30 is a key date in football as the vast majority of contracts that expire do so on this date. Clubs are already releasing larger than usual lists of released players but what about those players still very much in demand? They could sign for a new club, yet their current club’s season might have not yet come to an end. What to do? And although no-one is going to be actually move till the new season, what about the oddity when, for example, Willian, might be about to sign a long-term contract with one club but extend his existing one with Chelsea for a few weeks and then play against his new-club-to-be? Could he possibly play? What if he got injured? What if a tackle put him out for the season? What if a goal he scored put his new team out of the top four? What if a lower-league player played a play-off game for the club that was releasing them after the season ended and got injured in the process, ruling a move to a new club out? Messy doesn’t begin to cover it.
See You On The Other Side (the afterlife)
At the time of writing this, 40,000 people have died in the UK and the number of COVID or related deaths is probably much higher in reality. This has to come into the equation, however fit and healthy footballers are, as they might pass the virus onto someone that is not. Troy Deeney has been one of the players who have voiced these kind of concerns and decided not to return to training because of the risk to his young child. He won’t be alone because just one death will be one too many if it happens as a result of football restarting. The impact of playing the Liverpool match against Atletico Madrid – a crime said Jurgen Klopp – is beginning to be felt in Merseyside, and although the club’s famous ex-manager, Bill Shankly, said football was more important than life and death, he probably wasn’t serious and he definitely wasn’t right.
See You On The Other Side (of the league ladder)
The only reason football is ploughing on with this season is because of money. Everyone knows it. For clubs at the bottom and top of the Premier League and Championship respectively, there are a hundred and sixty million reasons why they want to carry on and save their skin / win promotion (delete as applicable).
They will claim things like sporting integrity are the reason for wanting to finish. This is as disingenuous as saying a car trip is the ideal way to test one’s eyesight. A club wants to continue because they can still go or stay up and the riches of the promised land are too great to pass up. Even the seemingly magnanimous actions of Leeds, who said that although they were in a position where they’d be promoted, they would rather play for the points on the pitch, aren’t completely transparent. It’s well known that the struggling Premier League clubs have already indicated that they won’t accept being relegated if the Championship clubs wanting to come up and take their places haven’t completed their season.
See You On The Other Side (of the fence)
Most of the lockdown fighting is about restarting but League Two have already indicated they want to end the season now. Most of the arguments are from clubs who are in the promotion or relegation shake-up and don’t want to kill their dream but at least one club in that situation did the opposite. Port Vale’s co-owner and Chairwoman, Carol Shanahan, did the ‘hardest thing she’s ever done’ by voting to curtail the season with her team a point and a place outside the play-off zone. Why? She did it because after hearing the other clubs at the meeting talk, she knew that restarting games would bring costs and risks that some clubs wouldn’t survive. It was for the greater good; that jobs would go and lives be potentially lost if she went the other way and that the unity of the league and EFL was more important than her own club’s interests. The only disappointing thing about this is that it is a rare stance. Oh, and that some others in positions of influence didn’t also think like she did.
See You On The Other Side (of the unemployment desk)
What Carol Shanahan saw – or foresaw – was what Huddersfield owner, Phil Hodgkinson, feels might happen and the football pyramid in England completely fall apart with more than three-quarters of clubs going bust. There will already be over a thousand players out of contract who’ll not find it as easy to find new clubs next season but if the other clubs go under, their players and staff will all lose their employment too. This is before we even begin to factor in the jobs of those connected or reliant on the club in the wider community or the impact losing a club will have on those living within the community. And jobs won’t be easy to find out of football either (apart from at Amazon and the Track & Trace offices) as large firms also shed staff; the worst being the large ones with huge cash reserves (such as Rolls Royce and BA) who have taken millions of taxpayers’ money in job retention schemes yet still laid thousands off.
See You On The Other Side (of the argument)
At some stage, if some football clubs are still left after all this, they’ll eventually have to make nice and play together again. This will be harder in Scotland than a lot of places after their clubs have become embroiled in a bitter dispute with the league and amongst themselves on the way to conclude the season. It’s been a wee bit heated and divisive to say the least, with recriminations and counterclaims galore as well as the on-off-on-again issue of league reconstruction. I’m not saying it wouldn’t help but you get the feeling that if Hearts were currently bottom of SPFL League Two when the games were suspended, they’d be advocating a Premier League of 42 clubs from next season.
See You On The Other Side (of the gender divide)
There is a distinct difference between the way the men’s top divisions and the women’s have been handled as the virus has taken hold. While Project Restart has suggested that nothing other than a conclusion to the season has ever been on the cards, the female equivalent was ended this week. Again money talks, and this protects clubs because any club playing games in empty stadiums loses money. But nine of the 12 FAWSL clubs are part of Premier League clubs who have never contemplated ending the men’s season.
So it’s interesting to see the very different courses of action taken and to also wonder why? But this isn’t confined to football; in nearly all team sports there have been similar gender gaps. Can you imagine if they said in tennis that the men would play the US Open but the girls weren’t allowed? Never mind Serena’s reaction; Andy Murray would be chaining himself to the Flushing Meadow entrance gates in protest. It’s a stark reminder that although the sporting world talks a good game when it comes to equality, many federations are more US Soccer Federation when it comes to walking that talk. At a time when ‘reset’ seems to be the answer to everything, maybe this one is due sooner than most?
See You On The Other Side (of the glass partition)
I’ve already decided that if something is too unenjoyable in future because of the new ‘normal’, I’d rather not do it at all or wait until any restrictions have lifted. Weatherspoons are reopening pubs but with extra staff to keep people apart, for instance, and I’d be happier with a pint at home then having one with a member of staff constantly glaring or coming over with a tape measure. The same for theme parks and anything like that; it’s just a personal sentiment. I’d rather save my money than pay for an experience that isn’t anywhere near as good. How this will impact on my watching of football is going to be a challenge. Will fans have to wear those ridiculous balloon hats, for example, or face masks at games? Will there be breaks in play so we can wash our hands? What about plastic or glass partitions between the seats? What about if they outlaw tackling, goal celebrations or even enforce a two-metre rule on the pitch where players can’t go near their opponents (Please note: Walsall already piloted this at Cheltenham earlier in the season and it didn’t go well)?
Food for thought?
Maybe I’ve blown it all out of proportion and we’ll be back to normal by September wondering what all the fuss was about and tearing up and down the country in our cars as if we were a senior government advisor with COVID symptoms just as a pandemic was about to get out of control.
I really hope we are but fear there is a long way to go in this and that some of the tricky dilemmas in this article will have to be tackled one way or the other.
Either way, follow your instinct and er….see you on the other side?
words Darren Young, D3D4 columnist