Glorified Friendlies are Back!

Every football fan has very mixed emotions about the international weekend…majority of people strongly dislike this period of the season as they don’t get to see their favourite team play for the next 2 weeks. However, a very small majority of fans like the international games as everyone “comes close together”.

The international games kick off today with a derby, Greece vs Cyprus. These international matches will carry out until the 18th of November, with England playing 3 times against the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Iceland.

Now this is where the questions are asked. Why do we have these friendless? From my perspective, I can slightly see why, it gives international mangers to rotate and change their squads and line-ups. It also gives in-form players a chance to play for their country, which I can only imagine is a massive honour. But this is where I see an issue, for the past couple season the EFL have complained about how much they have to cram fixtures into their seasons, with discussions of cutting teams out of the leagues etc. Mangers of Premier League and Championship clubs have complained about the amount of fixtures and quick turnarounds. This is where I see a simple solution cut the international friendlies! This is the second batch of friendless in the past 3 months and it has taken up a full 3 weeks worth of club football, it can simply ruin clubs forms, which could be very crucial to the season.

I just see the these games as pointless, playing 3 games in a week can drain players and really take the most out of them. The games these players are playing mean nothing and it is a risk of picking up injuries that ruin the rest of their season…