[Football] Glenn on Sky Sports this morning

[The Large One]

I don't think playing football in an empty stadium is normal. Buses are still on the road etc etc.. We can't just stop because people are dying, of course its terribly sad but in my opinion that is even more reason to try to get football the national sport back. It's entertainment at the end of the day and that would be very welcome

You appear to have an self-imposed arbitrary concern over who lives and who dies within society.

We can't stop because people are dying, but given the nature of football as entertainment, we should stop when re-starting increases the risk of more people dying. Yet for you, that is the very reason we should be re-starting.

Increasing the death toll for the sake of your entertainment is effectively making you an apologist for unnecessary suffering.

In short...
Unless you're happy for the death toll to exponentially rise again, you really haven't thought this through. The only thought you've given is to yourself.

 

[beorhthelm]

if the players took a substantial pay cut, the pressure to complete the season may be eased.

 

[at15155]

I completely agree with Glenn. We are 15th and would finish 15th on PPG or weighted PPG. Why should we play on and run the risk of being relegated when The Championship stops and the teams currently in the top 2 or top 6 have the risk of them dropping out of automatics or playoffs completely removed?

Is anyone else talking about the players having next to none full squad full contact training. Our last game was 10 weeks ago this weekend, the period they’ve had off is longer than the summer break. How can you expect them to be able to play 9 games in 6 or 7 weeks with only 2 weeks of phase 2 or phase 3 training? I’m pretty certain that’s best case scenario as well.

 

[clapham_gull]

But if it wont come back then surely those employed within the game should do what the rest of us have had to endure, including furloughs. Enough.

You want the government to pay their wages ?

 

[clapham_gull]

if the players took a substantial pay cut, the pressure to complete the season may be eased.

Which is the sensible grown up answer. THANK YOU

 

[The Large One]

Sorry, but I have little time for Glenn’s position. The risk to fit persons between the ages of 18 and 38 is almost zero. The amount of protection being offered for them is clearly OTT. They will be constantly tested and will have to shield vulnerable members if their family/entourage just like the rest of us. Most of us have lost salary for not being able to work with many furloughed. Many if us are forced to work in riskier positions right now. Doctors, emergency services, airports etc. Football is a job for players. Their choice should be do your job with all the protections being offered, which are not offered to the rest of us, or risk moving to the govt furlough programme. Which do you think they will choose?

Demonstrably untrue.

Given that falsehood, everything else I was expecting to read was no surprise.

In summary, you're effectively telling a professional athlete how to be a professional athlete, and how to live their lives based on your own spurious pre-judgements and guesswork. You also appear to have a self-imposed arbitrary opinion on who lives and who dies - with no first-hand, peer-tested evidence of what will happen - and all on the back of your pre-judged contention of how a professional athlete should be - something you have no experience of.

From that, it's fairly clear you don't know what you're on about.

If Glenn tells us how he and his fellow professionals are feeling, it's not for you - especially with no valid evidence to the contrary - or anyone else to tell them otherwise.

 

[The Large One]

I complete agree with Glenn. We are 15th and would finish 15th on PPG or weighted PPG. Why should we play on and run the risk of being relegated when The Championship stops and the teams currently in the top 2 or top 6 have the risk of them dropping out of automatics or playoffs completely removed?

Is anyone else talking about the players have next to none full squad full contact training. Our last game was 10 weeks ago this weekend, the period they’ve had off is longer than the summer break. How can you expect them to be able to play 9 games in 6 or 7 weeks with only 2 weeks of phase 2 or phase 3 training? I’m pretty certain that’s best case scenario as well.

Our current position is irrelevant.

It might not be to fans of other clubs, but that's entirely their problem, not ours. Glenn's first concern is for the welfare of his fellow professionals, those around him, and society as a whole, as he has proven many times.

 

[Miami Seagull]

At a maximum of 500 a week. Or whatever the furlough limits are, yes.

 

[Miami Seagull]

Demonstrably untrue.

Given that falsehood, everything else I was expecting to read was no surprise.

In summary, you're effectively telling a professional athlete how to be a professional athlete, and how to live their lives based on your own spurious pre-judgements and guesswork. You also appear to have a self-imposed arbitrary opinion on who lives and who dies - with no first-hand, peer-tested evidence of what will happen - and all on the back of your pre-judged contention of how a professional athlete should be - something you have no experience of.

From that, it's fairly clear you don't know what you're on about.

If Glenn tells us how he and his fellow professionals are feeling, it's not for you - especially with no valid evidence to the contrary - or anyone else to tell them otherwise.

Thats fine. Its their choice. They can then go onto government furloughing like the rest of the country who’s jobs have been suspended.

 

[n1 gull]

You appear to have an self-imposed arbitrary concern over who lives and who dies within society.

We can't stop because people are dying, but given the nature of football as entertainment, we should stop when re-starting increases the risk of more people dying. Yet for you, that is the very reason we should be re-starting.

Increasing the death toll for the sake of your entertainment is effectively making you an apologist for unnecessary suffering.

In short...
Unless you're happy for the death toll to exponentially rise again, you really haven't thought this through. The only thought you've given is to yourself.

What absolute nonsense. I have a huge concern for society and think starting football would help the nation. OK you have a different viewpoint but to say I am fundamentally wanting people to risk their lives for my entertainment is insulting.
The risk will be assessed and if it's deemed low enough the games should be played imo. Glenn is not talking for all professional footballers. I have heard many that would like to return asap

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

What absolute nonsense. I have a huge concern for society and think starting football would help the nation. OK you have a different viewpoint but to say I am fundamentally wanting people to risk their lives for my entertainment is insulting.
The risk will be assessed and if it's deemed low enough the games should be played imo. Glenn is not talking for all professional footballers. I have heard many that would like to return asap

Are you crying now or in a minute

 

[n1 gull]

Are you crying now or in a minute

Crying with laughter. It's just emotional nonsense but I'll soldier through

 

[crodonilson]

You appear to have an self-imposed arbitrary concern over who lives and who dies within society.

We can't stop because people are dying, but given the nature of football as entertainment, we should stop when re-starting increases the risk of more people dying. Yet for you, that is the very reason we should be re-starting.

Increasing the death toll for the sake of your entertainment is effectively making you an apologist for unnecessary suffering.

In short...
Unless you're happy for the death toll to exponentially rise again, you really haven't thought this through. The only thought you've given is to yourself.

Problem though is when will football be able to restart without at least some risk of infections, and in turn that could always lead to someone dying, even if that risk is very, very small. So when is it an acceptable risk because if you're saying football shouldn;t resume until that risk is eliminated and given the WHO has said it's very possible we will never be able to fully remove coronavirus are we saying that football will never continue??

In a bad flu season up to 25,000 people may die, flu is contageous and footballers can get it and pass it onto others, in fact m ost normal things we do in soxciety increase the risk of the like of flu but we put very few control measures and deem it generally an acceptable risk even with a vaccine, they may pass it on and ultimately every year thousands of people die from flu but that is a risk and a fact we live with without really blinking an eye.

Ultimately football is an industry, a part of the economy, as much as it is an entertainment that gives us pleasure, it contributes billions in revenue and ultimately through taxation it contributes to funding the NHS etc which are needed to fight the virus. We have to balance the risks of people dying against the risks of contuning to shut down parts of the economy thus leading to mass unemploymenent, an increase in the number of people in poverty, a decrease in tax revenues and our ability to fund an NHS capable of fighting this and future potrential pandemics further down the line.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Problem though is when will football be able to restart without at least some risk of infections, and in turn that could always lead to someone dying, even if that risk is very, very small. So when is it an acceptable risk because if you're saying football shouldn;t resume until that risk is eliminated and given the WHO has said it's very possible we will never be able to fully remove coronavirus are we saying that football will never continue??

In a bad flu season up to 25,000 people may die, flu is contageous and footballers can get it and pass it onto others, in fact m ost normal things we do in soxciety increase the risk of the like of flu but we put very few control measures and deem it generally an acceptable risk even with a vaccine, they may pass it on and ultimately every year thousands of people die from flu but that is a risk and a fact we live with without really blinking an eye.

Ultimately football is an industry, a part of the economy, as much as it is an entertainment that gives us pleasure, it contributes billions in revenue and ultimately through taxation it contributes to funding the NHS etc which are needed to fight the virus. We have to balance the risks of people dying against the risks of contuning to shut down parts of the economy thus leading to mass unemploymenent, an increase in the number of people in poverty, a decrease in tax revenues and our ability to fund an NHS capable of fighting this and future potrential pandemics further down the line.

The death rates for seasonal flu and Covid 19 are not even close to being comparable which does rather make the rest of your post redundant. That’s even before we take into account that the country has gone into lockdown for Covid and always remains open for flu.

 

[Badger Boy]

I watched the show and I thought Glenn spoke extremely well. He put the perspective of the squad across, as well as his own. It's quite clear that he would return to playing because he understands the risk for himself and for his family, but he also understands why other players are in different circumstances and if they're vehemently against coming back to playing then he has to represent them as well. It's not unreasonable for a player who wants to return (maybe they're lonely, missing the squad, whatever else) to want to take the risk and it's also not unreasonable for another player to want to stay away for a few more weeks and not have the decision taken out of their hands. This is a very nuanced discussion and when Sky or anyone else get a talking head to represent a squad, that person has to represent the whole squad and not just the people he may happen to agree with.

I want the players back because I love sport and I miss it. I am a lonely person and it's the easiest thing in the world for me to want it back. I respect the players and I respect everyone's right to tell me I'm wrong. I accept I might be but I'd also temper that by adding I've been in quarantine since the week before it was mandated, I'm not one of those flouting the rules and risking contracting and spreading the virus. I have positively contributed to flattening the curve, as we all should have.

 

[crodonilson]

The death rates for seasonal flu and Covid 19 are not even close to being comparable which does rather make the rest of your post redundant. That’s even before we take into account that the country has gone into lockdown for Covid and always remains open for flu.

Covid 19 is much more contageous and much more deadly than flu, I get that, but given that it is likely to be around for a good while, may be forever when does the level of risk become acceptable?? Where does the balance fall between protecting people from getting it and protecting the economy which if the recession turns into a depression and millions lose their jobs will lead to many more deaths from all of the consequences fo that years down the line??
That was my point, we have to find an acceptable level of what we deem to be safe asnd that will never be nil, just as we do with the flu, we accept people die from it but we also know that if we did some of the things we do now we could supress the number of people dying from flu, if every life is ultimately so precious why don't we implement these measures? Probably because the benefits of keeping people alive and not getting flu is outwieged by the cost to the general population in enjoying their lives and the economivc cost of doing so.

 

[Dougie]

Glenn’s been on the box more than Barber or parish and that’s saying something.

 

[Yoda]

Prolonged contact? With people that will have been tested multiple times in the past few weeks?

Just to say they've been tested multiple times in the past few weeks does not mean they might not have it in the lead up to and on a match day and start spreading it. Remember, it takes 48 hours to get the results of those tests back from the lab.

 

[Miami Seagull]

Just to say they've been tested multiple times in the past few weeks does not mean they might not have it in the lead up to and on a match day and start spreading it. Remember, it takes 48 hours to get the results of those tests back from the lab.

The point i am making, as the context of my post clearly shows, is that the risk the players are taking is significantly less than many others in society.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

The point i am making, as the context of my post clearly shows, is that the risk the players are taking is significantly less than many others in society.

Agreed, but most others at real risk are doing important jobs. Football isn’t really important, other than to those who have a lot to lose because of their investment in it. Investments can go down as well as up.