Football news - The Warm-Up: The Premier League is here to fill your diary
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Updated 04/06/2020 at 08:19 GMT
Fixture lists in England, fury in Sunderland, and a whole lot of not very much in Bremen
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp
Image credit: Getty Images
THURSDAY’S BIG STORIES
Happy fixture list day!
Here we go then. The first details of Project Restart are dribbling out into the public domain, and we begin with a guaranteed barnstormer of a fixture: 17 June, 6 pm, Aston Villa against Sheffield United. Jack Grealish takes on the overlapping centre-backs. The stuff the Warm-Up’s highly specific dreams are made of.
Hey it looks like Manchester City are playing Arsenal at 8pm. That’ll be good too.
We don’t have any precise times beyond that …
… but that Tottenham vs. Manchester United game really does look juicy. For The Warm-Up’s money, one of the most intriguing unknowns of the coronavirus break is what it will have done to José Mourinho and Spurs. They were teetering on the edge of implosion before everything ground to a halt. Will Mourinho return ever more Mourinho, or has a few months of isolation and self-reflection put him back in touch with the joyous, fun-loving José of old.
Okay, relatively fun. Relatively joyous.
The rest of the fixtures will likely appear at some point today, and all 92 will be on television somewhere. Shortly after that, somebody — it’ll be David Moyes, of course it’ll be David Moyes — will come out and complain about the fixtures, and we’ll all know that the terror, true terror, is back in his gut. And Project Restart will tick one step closer. Nature is healing.
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Sunderland, wyd?
Big news for fans of football clubs making complete idiots of themselves. Sunderland have announced an exciting, innovative approach to refunding season ticket holders for games held behind closed doors. They, er, won’t be doing it at all. From the club’s Q&A:
Q. If the 2019-20 season is completed behind closed doors, it was stated that supporters will not receive a refund and instead be entitled to a streaming pass. If a supporter does not want, or cannot access, a streaming pass, are they able to obtain a refund or an alternative voucher? A. Should the season be completed behind closed doors, season card holders would be automatically entitled to a streaming pass only. No further refund would be provided either by way of cash or voucher.
And that’s not all! This policy doesn’t just apply to this season: should closed-doors games be required next season, as seems likely, then anybody buying a season ticket will receive the same deal. A streaming pass, and no money back.
Things are going to be messy for clubs in League One and Two, who are generally more dependent on match-day revenue than those in the Premier League. But we’re going to suggest that this kind of inflexible approach is going to cause more problems than it solves. Particularly if it is indeed cheaper for fans to just hold off on renewal and pick up the streams as the become available. Honestly, being a Sunderland fan seems like fundamentally tiring work.
The musicians of Bremen are rather out of tune
Nothing happened in Werder Bremen’s Thursday night game against Eintracht Frankfurt, at least not to begin with. For the first hour it was just like having the early rounds of the Europa League back: football as screensaver, demanding and deserving no real attention.
But then after an hour, the away side realised “Hang on, this lot are rubbish”, and rattled home three goals. The first was thoroughly decent, too. Big cross. Fat header. Lovely.
That win moves Eintracht up to 11th and likely safety, but leaves Werder stuck down in the mire. And if they can’t improve on this showing, they won’t be clambering out any time soon. When you can’t create chances at one end, and can’t defend set pieces at the other, you’re basically doomed.
IN OTHER NEWS
A big The Warm-Up salute to Saúl Ñíguez, breaker of hearts, destroyer of dreams, and Twitter troll non pareil. That new club he was teasing on Twitter? Not Manchester United. No, he’s setting up an academy to encourage good health and education alongside football training. What a monster.
RETRO CORNER
Apparently yesterday was World Bicycle Day. So please enjoy this compilation of Hugo Sánchez, the world’s finest ever upside down footballer. Weird that his somersault was a bit rubbish.
HAT TIP
The Championship is coming back on June 20, but not everybody involved is entirely pleased about it. For The Athletic, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Matt Slater have a ferret about and find happiness, frustration, and a furious QPR.
The essence of QPR’s complaint — and something that other clubs will say in private but not in public — is that they have not been given enough time to build their players up to full fitness before the kick-off. The first round back of games on June 20 would be the first competitive football they will have played for 15 weeks — a longer break than they would normally have between the end of one season and the start of the next one.
COMING UP
After the Portuguese Primeira Liga got going against yesterday with a surprise defeat for league leaders Porto, Benfica have a chance to leapfrog them at the top of the table. They’re at home to Tondela, while fourth-place Sporting go to Vitoria Guimaraes.
Like a Cure tribute band fronted by Rebecca Black, there’s nobody more Friday than Tom Adams. He’ll be here with you tomorrow.
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