The first help from the “Friends”? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

Follow us on Twitter @UntoldArsenal

By Walter Broeckx

This week was for some unknown reason put on the calender for playing some friendly international games. I think by now you know my view on those crap friendlies. Who on earth comes up with the idea of just days before the start of the season in most countries to play those games? And that after all teams have spend at the euro 2012 or have been playing friendly games against teams that went there. Then why these extra set of friendly games? Why don’t you fick yourself Fufa.

As usual we sent our players out there and on one day we get reports of 3 players being injured. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott have been withdrawn from the England squad. And Koscielny has a problem with his calf said the French team and is a doubt. A DOUBT???? If he has the slightest of injuries he is not a doubt! He is A CERTAINTY! A certainty to be sent back to his club and to have him treated! Why on earth do we have to allow a national team to take a risk with one of our players?

Forget about all those insane rumours about Barcelona being in for Song and about Van Persie moving north.  I’m more worried about those stupid friendly games that are still being inserted into the calender.  We won’t know until tomorrow what consequences it has had on the fitness of our players. Spain playing somewhere in Puerto  Rico of all places. Why not play a friendly on the moon? What will it mean for Cazorla and will he be able to play this weekend for Arsenal? Will he suffer from jet lag?

Who is that stupid moron in Fufa or Uefa who invents those dates for those friendly games? Send him to the Planet X please and don’t send a rocket to get him back.

But apart from all this there is another sinister thing hidden in those friendlies.  A thing that is not down to Fifa or Uefa. Something that is down to whoever makes up the calender for the PL.

Because let us take a look at the calender for this weekend.  And we will stick to the teams who have most international players away on duty somewhere around the world and to the teams that were in the top 6 last season.

And then we see that Arsenal are the team that will be playing the first of those teams. We will play at 3.00 this Saturday. This means that our players have had to hurry back home on thursday, have a short training on Friday and then start the season the next day.  And then remember that for qualifying games the new rules are that they are played on Tuesday to allow the players more rest and to give them more time to join their team. And according to Arsenal.com we had 13 players away on international duty this week.

The same goes for Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur.  I don’t know how many players they are missing, but somehow I doubt it is 13. But that isn’t the point. Because one could say that they have a few hours more rest compared to Arsenal but I don’t think this will make any difference. So also Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur are somehow badly treated by the person behind the scenes who draws up the fixture list. Or is it a TV station that decides on this?

And then we can see that Chelsea and Manchester City both have one day extra rest compared to Arsenal.

Because of the acknowledgement by Fifa/Uefa to move the qualifiers to Friday/Tuesday it is clear that the teams that have to play on Saturday are disadvantaged to those teams who only have to play on Sunday.

And as if that wasn’t enough we also see that there is one team that got even more rest than all the others from the top 6. As Manchester United only has to play on Monday evening.  So their players get two more days of rest compared to the players from Arsenal. And one more day compared to the players or Chelsea and Manchester City.

Of course not all teams can play on a Sunday but why is it always Manchester United that gets the longest rest? We have seen and written about this when we have shown that this is also the case in the Christmas and New year period. Then also Arsenal usually is the only team to get just 48 hours between their games and Manchester United gets at least 3 days of rest.

How comes it is always us that gets the shortest rest and always Manchester United most rest between games?

And it is acknowledged by Uefa and Fifa by changing the data to other days that is has a negative impact on the players. So who is making up the decision on who plays friendlies and when?  Having always the same one benefiting and the same one suffering is strange. Unless the fixture list is made up somewhere in Manchester of course…

It sure would be nice to know who those Friends are.

PS: Well the good thing is that our sports channel has chosen the Arsenal game to be shown live this Saturday. COYG!

—————–