Gruelling shedule has left best teams, players jaded

The punishing schedule has affected a club as mighty as Real Madrid; witness their humiliation by Bayern Munich. And even Manchester United, with their fabled squad depth and system of rotating players, are looking jaded. They set the Champions League on fire last season, pulling off incredible wins and scoring in every match. This season, they’ve perfected the art of resilience, rarely stepping into overdrive and managing to win even when not playing their best.

The congestion can have more serious effects. Clubs paying these stars astronomical salaries can only watch, praying for safe return, as they go off slap in mid-season for a little-known tournament or, worse, an inconsequential friendly, three days before a vital cup or league tie. Ask Dwight Yorke and Harry Kewell, ask Kanu and the others who spent five peak Premiership weeks at the African Nations Cup.

This column had earlier written about spectators being turned off. That was at Real Madrid, when the mighty Santiago Bernabeau stadium played host to a few thousand. It’s the same with Manchester United, whose fans have regularly been out-sung by visiting fans, whether from Bordeaux or Fiorentina (or even, latterly, Liverpool). Across Europe, average attendances are down by 7,000. As former French international Eric de Meco says, “We used to look forward to big European nights, but now they have become banal.”

The good news is that something is being done about this. A FIFA committee headed by Michel Platini has plans to put some order into the chaotic fixtures list. As they see it, domestic tournaments would be held in two phases, Feb-June and September-November. December would be a month off (easy in Europe, when most leagues anyway break for the winter) and January used for warming up (watch the resorts in Spain and Portugal — Brazil, too, for the likes of Manchester United — get booked through). Internationals would be concentrated in July and August.

The catch, at least in Britain, is that December, January and August are when attendances are highest; the first because of Christmas, the others because of the Bank Holiday fixtures. So while team managers would welcome the Platini Plan, club chairmen would probably not. Oh well, you can’t have it both ways…

RED REVIVAL: The most heartening sight of the past few weeks is the resurgence of Liverpool. You can’t keep a good club down, and those who followed English football in the 1970s and 80s would know that they were the best. It’s been a long time since they won anything of note (10 years since they were League champions), but under the shrewd management of Gerard Houllier, they are surely on the way. Not so long ago, they were a collection of pretty faces — the Spice Boys, they were called — who couldn’t last it out one full season.

Then Houllier took charge, a break from the sacred rule that managers are promoted from within. Steve McManaman and David James left, to be replaced by a clutch of foreigners few had heard of. They mixed well, though, with the solid local content — Owen, Fowler, Carragher, Murphy — to form a team that is…well…a team. The most notable aspect of Liverpool’s game today is that they play for each other, the characteristic so closely identified with Alex Ferguson’s success story. They play hard, as did the best Liverpool teams of the past, they have a tight defence (another club tradition) and they aren’t afraid to attack (remember Rush and Beardsley?).

Anyone who saw the match against Manchester United last week will know how effective these qualities can be when used together.

Houllier’s plan is simple: Take one step at a time. His aim this season is to qualify for Europe, which shouldn’t be a problem. Next season? Few will bet against the Premiership making its first journey to Merseyside.

Jayaditya Gupta can be contacted on e-mail at: joyguptaexpress2.indexp.co.in