Mixed Reaction To Premier League Winter Break

Calls for a winter break in the Premier League calendar to guard against player
burn-out have met with mixed reactions from the football hierarchy.

A BBC Sport survey revealed that 13 out of 15 player union representatives
supported the idea of a mid-season window including Gordon Taylor, the chief
executive of the players’ union.

However, the idea has been criticised by Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson
who believes such a break is not needed.

Gibson said: ‘I’d take some convincing about a two-week break. I’ve never
heard anyone call football a daily grind. If they’re tired rest them, that’s why
there are big squads.

‘We are talking about fit young men who are very well pampered, have the best
diet in world, travel to games in luxury surroundings. They stay in the best
hotels, have the best doctors, physios, they have the best of everything.

‘The problem at our football club is not the players who are playing but the
ones who aren’t and I haven’t met a player yet who doesn’t want more football.

‘Any player complaining should come and do a 14-hour day in industrial
Teesside. We’re not asking them to go to Afghanistan or Iraq, we’re asking them
to play football.’

However, Taylor insisted that burn-out is one of the biggest issues in
football particularly with regard to the country’s elite players.