NATHAN JONES is right — international breaks are out of control.
The Charlton boss has never been one to hide his feelings but, as domestic football grinds to yet another halt, his fiery warnings over player welfare are impossible to ignore.
Charlton boss Nathan Jones branded the EFL fixtures schedule and international breaks a joke Credit: Ian Tuttle/Shutterstock
Derby’s Henrik Meister became the latest Championship player to get crocked this weekend Credit: CameraSport via Getty Images
We have only just had a bloated World Cup that stretched across the summer with more teams than ever before.
Yet here we are again, staring down the barrel of another fortnight of domestic stoppage so England and other European countries can play FOUR pointless Nations League fixtures.
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These games are nothing other than glorified friendlies that footballers and frankly the fans could do without. UEFA should bin them.
Clubs across the Championship — and even League One and Two — are being pushed to breaking point.
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I was at the Valley on Wednesday night to watch Charlton’s goalless draw with QPR.
And afterwards Jones launched a blistering attack on the fixture schedule after being forced to roll his team out at 12:30pm on Saturday — after playing late on Wednesday night — two weeks running.
He rightly asked whether anyone making these decisions actually understands human bodies, warning that players are being treated like robots rather than men.
His manic energy and touchline antics might divide opinion — but I love the bloke. Football is desperate for real personalities who aren’t afraid to speak their mind. And on this occasion, he hit the nail on the head.
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Nuno Espirito Santo has had to manage three games in six days with West Ham Credit: MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Look across the division and club treatment rooms are turning into battlefields.
Tony Mowbray has been tearing his hair out over a mounting injury crisis at Blackburn while Millwall have effectively had an entire starting XI out injured at various points.
The root cause of this madness isn’t hard to find — money and bad scheduling.
Sky Sports pour astronomical sums into EFL broadcast deals, and the clubs rely on that revenue.
Because the broadcasters hold the purse strings, games get shoved into slots to suit TV schedules with zero regard for recovery times.
Where has the basic common sense gone?
Even West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo branded the fixture load “mad” after his side were forced to cram three games into six days.
Nuno only survived that chaotic week because he has a massive, multi-million-pound Premier League standard squad to rotate between Derby, Bolton, and Wrexham — picking up all nine points.
Most Championship gaffers simply do not have that luxury. When they get hit with midweek-to-Saturday or even Friday turnarounds, they are forced to send exhausted players straight into the meat grinder.
Which brings me to the uncomfortable solution — we need to restructure our leagues.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — the Championship must follow the Premier League’s lead and reduce to a 20-team format.
People will scoff and cry tradition but the second tier has evolved into an elite, world-class division.
It is easily one of the most competitive and high-intensity competitions on the planet.
Expecting players to churn through a 46-game meat-grinder on top of cup ties and international interruptions is insanity.
I’ve always thought there should be 80 teams in the EFL split across four divisions, creating a new League Three or even regionalising League Two into North and South sections.
I get the counter-argument for the lower divisions. Trimming four home fixtures off the calendar hits those clubs where it hurts — their matchday revenue.
For teams living hand-to-mouth, losing four home gates a season is a non-starter unless the financial deficit is covered.
That is why the Premier League must step up. The top flight hoards billions in television revenue; a fraction of that money filtering down to compensate lower-tier clubs would easily offset the loss of four home matches.
The current model is broken. If we want our teams playing fast, thrilling, high-quality football, we have to protect the players delivering it.
Ditch the Nations League, most definitely trim the Championship down to 20 clubs and give managers like Jones and Mowbray a schedule that gives them a chance to breathe and recover between games.
Otherwise, the battlefields in our physio rooms are only going to get bigger.
Sack Parkinson? They should be building him a statue
Phil Parkinson was on the end of a 6-0 battering at West Ham but Wrexham should not axe him Credit: MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
SOME Wrexham fans calling for Phil Parkinson’s head need to give their heads a serious wobble.
I remember watching Wrexham play Dover on a freezing Tuesday night on the Kent coast about six or seven years ago.
There were barely 20 away fans shivering on the terraces, watching a side languishing near the bottom of the National League.
Even when Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac rocked up for their first game at Maidenhead a few years back, just over 1,000 people were inside the ground.
Fast forward to Friday night and Wrexham were walking out at the London Stadium to face West Ham in front of nearly 60,000 fans.
Supporters can have outrageously short memories.
Parkinson has masterminded a miracle in North Wales. He has guided Wrexham to three consecutive promotions, dragging them from the non-league abyss straight to the Championship.
They should be building a statue of the manager outside the Racecourse Ground — not getting so hysterical after a painful 6-0 loss against a multi-million-pound team who should really be in the Premier League.
Maybe Parkinson has taken Wrexham as far as he can, but he deserves respect and he certainly deserves time.
He should be given at least the whole of this season to figure it out.
And some people in North Wales should really remember where they have come from. Fifteen years languishing in non-league was a lot worse than a bad night at the office in East London.
