Turns out Covid-19 isn't taking a break for the internationals - The Warm-Up
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Updated 08/10/2020 at 09:38 GMT
Scotland, Arsenal and Celtic are the early losers; Olivier Giroud takes his place in history; and somebody's talking about B-teams again…
Olivier Giroud
Image credit: Getty Images
THURSDAY'S BIG STORIES
Quarantierney
Scotland play Israel today, in the semi finals of the Euro 2020 play-offs (Path C). But three of their squad won't be taking to the pitch: Stuart Armstrong has tested positive for Covid-19, and Kieran Tierney and Ryan Christie -as 'close contacts' - have been ordered to quarantine as well.
We're guessing these won't be the last footballers to pick something up during this international break, what with all the flying on planes and staying in hotels and breathing that's happening. But they're an early example of the consequences. Tierney won't just be missing the Israel game: he'll be missing Arsenal vs. Manchester City a week on Saturday. Christie, meanwhile, will miss the Old Firm derby.
Tierney, who has tested negative, says he is "disappointed and frustrated". Arsenal, meanwhile, are asking questions:
Our medical team have confirmed that Kieran was socially distant at all times from the player who tested positive and has broken no rules regarding Covid-19 protocols. We are currently seeking further advice and clarification of the details.
Or, if we translate from diplomatic club-speak into the vernacular: What the hell? Our best defender has to go and sit in a room on his own? With Kevin de Bruyne coming next weekend? What are you trying to do to us?
Celtic are also hoping for a word or two with the authorities, while the Warm-Up is quietly fretting about what will happen when the positives start to pile up. To the football calendar, and to players' health. There's got to be a good chance that this international break will look, in hindsight, unutterably stupid. But when you look at the facts of the matter, it's clear what is to blame here. It's Fortnite.
King Olivier
As far as the Warm-Up can tell, Olivier Giroud has been 34 years of age for the last five years, and has always been, whatever his position in any squad, on the verge of replacement. Somebody younger, somebody quicker, somebody hungrier … and yet, he keeps on keeping on.
Last night he collected his 100th cap for France. He scored, twice. One of them was kind of ordinary, but the other looked like this:
All of which puts him in some seriously elite company. There are just seven other men that have racked up a century of caps for France: six from the 1998 World Cup winning squad, plus Hugo Lloris. And those goals, his 41st and 42nd, put him one clear of Michel Platini in the goalscoring lists. Only one man has scored more, and there's no shame in being second behind Thierry Henry.
France ran out 7-1 winners in the end (including another goal for Kylian Mbappé, who will be taking all these records in the end). But the Warm-Up hardly saw any of it, because we were watching Portugal against Spain. That ended 0-0. You're welcome, Olivier.
B is for [rude word deleted]
When the bombs have fallen and the seas have risen and there is nothing left of life on earth bar the cockroaches, one of the cockroaches - the bigger, fatter cockroach; the one with the most stockpiled food and the fanciest shell - will turn to the others and say "Hungry? Well, how about B-teams in the Football League, lads?"
This week's advocate for the Stupid Plan That Will Not Die was Ferran Soriano, chief exec of Manchester City, who is annoyed that German sides keep pinching all his teenagers.
The challenges of developing players in England where B teams are not allowed, we have a development gap of boys that are 17 or 18, they don't find the right place to develop and, for example, they are taken from us by the German teams, who try to sell them back to us for a price which is 10 times what they paid.
It's not surprising that this should flare up now: the Premier League, like all good cartels, is bound by its own nature to try and exploit the most of any useful crisis that presents itself. But that doesn't make this any less grotesque. The quid pro quo wasn't quite made explicit, but it's there, hovering behind Soriano's concerns. Give us what we want or we'll let you go broke.
The EFL voted against admitting B-teams in 2016, though they squeezed into the EFL Trophy. Fending them off this time around is going to be a much tougher ask, we suspect, with things feeling so existential and looking so bleak. But hopefully the principle can still be maintained that the league pyramid is a beautiful thing, and it would be a travesty to remodel it just so that Manchester City can save a few bob.
IN OTHER NEWS
Scoring your first international goal is always good. Scoring it like this, well, that's just silly.
RETRO CORNER
It's England vs. Wales this evening, so let's rewind 40 years to a sunny day in Wrexham, when shorts were short and Wales put four past England. This was Mike England's first game in charge of Wales. Not a bad way to get your reign going.
HAT TIP
Over on ESPN, Tim Vickery takes a look at the state of play for South American qualification. Perhaps naively, we'd assumed that given the whole pandemic, they might look to tweak the epic 18-game home-and-away league thing that makes CONMEBOL qualifying so compelling, and so long. But oh, what fools we were.
CONMEBOL is desperate to avoid [shortening the process]. The dates in March and September have already been lost. If they give up many more, it becomes impossible to fit in 18 rounds before the 2022 World Cup. The marathon format, as well as its sporting merit, is a vital source of revenue for the national associations and, with the exception of Uruguay, the TV deals have already been signed on the basis of every country having nine home games.
COMING UP
Scotland face Israel and the Republic of Ireland take on Slovakia in two of today's eight Euro 2020 play-off semi finals. And England play Wales. In a friendly. For some reason.
Tom Adams will be here tomorrow with news of Dominic Calvert-Lewin's hat trick on England debut.
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