My mood is being captured by injuries again. Thomas Tuchel, addicted to the sweet nectar of Arsenal player minutes, put Konsa on for 90, despite the player struggling through the camp. Now, he\u2019s been sent home a week early to join back up with the Arsenal medical team.<\/p>\n
Now, I understand Tuchel has no reason to give a shit about Arsenal\u2019s title run, but isn\u2019t that the problem here? How have we jumped out of a grueller of a World Cup, straight into another three-week competition where there is a competing mindset of how to manage player fitness? Arsenal can manage minutes\u2026 Tuchel does not need to because he\u2019s trying to win his mini-league in the Nations League.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just Konsa, we\u2019ve seen early exits from Kai, Fernandes, Dorgu, Alex Scott, and Alex Isak. That\u2019s a lot of top-tier players who might not have needed to sit on the sidelines if their clubs had managed their minutes. <\/p>\n
Now imagine the state of the players Arteta will welcome back. Viktor has played three games on the bounce, Saka has loaded up on minutes, and our Brazilians have done a 22,000-mile round trip in the name of a Brazilian FA tour. Quite staggering, you have to say.<\/p>\n
This second phase of the season will be the one where you see the consequences of a short summer break for players. Hamstrings will pop, knees will go, and great players will pay the price of the international bodies ramping up the competitions they want the players for. I find it all rather frustrating. The bigger problem when thinking of reform is the players mostly love it. They step out of the intensity of work and have a lovely little tour with their mates, they get to see family, they get to brandish the shirt they love to everyone who truly knows them.<\/p>\n
But surely, there\u2019s got to be a sensible cap on this? No one really wins when you gas players. How do we get to something more optimal? There\u2019s one more break that lands in a month, that\u2019ll be 8 days, so shorter, but still annoying that by match day ten, we had to have 4 weeks of international football right after a World Cup.<\/p>\n
I am NOT happy. If you\u2019re reading this from an international governing body, thank you for reading, but please, tell your superiors of my fury. Unless your superior is Wenger, then just tell him I said hi, and congrats on the 30-year anniversary. x<\/p>\n
When it\u2019s all bad news in the opening paragraph, you deserve some unsourced transfer gossip.<\/p>\n
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