It's around about this time of year that the fixture list starts to get a bit congested for football clubs up and down the country. There's the hectic Christmas schedule just around the corner and managers are desperately trying to shuffle their squad to 'protect' their best players and save them for the biggest games.
The question I have to ask is...why?
Why is it too much to ask a player who is earning somewhere in the region of £80,000 a week to play three games in seven days? Why are managers forever chopping and changing their tried and trusted line-ups to rest their star players, often to the detriment of the team? Just ask Rafa Benitez.
Maybe I'm just being ignorant, but if you offered me the chance to become a multi-millionaire for kicking a ball around a pitch, the very last thing that I would protest against would be how often I was asked to do it.
Granted, the decision is often taken out of the player's hands by over-cautious managers, but is all this mollycoddling really necessary?
You will regularly see the likes of Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres sitting on the bench when Burnley or Portsmouth come to town, to be called upon only if something goes drastically wrong during the game.
Often these players may be nursing niggling injuries or working their way back from a longer lay-off - excuses which are perfectly understandable as managers will want to be careful not to rush their main men back into action to allow them plenty of time to recover.
That's all fine and well. But when these international stars are omitted solely on the basis that they have played a game last Sunday and one in the Champions League in midweek, it beggars belief.
Let's tot up those minutes on the field, shall we? Assuming they play the full length of the game on both occasions, that's 90 at the weekend and 90 in midweek. Add to that perhaps two or three training sessions during the week and you have 180 minutes in competitive action, plus the mandatory preparation on the training ground.
I pay approximately £12 a week to play for an hour in a 7-a-side team on a Monday, and for 50 minutes in a 5-a-side team on a Thursday. You won't find me asking to be left out by the team manager every other week. No, you're more likely to see me chomping at the bit to get on the pitch for as long as possible. Offer me £50,000 a week for the privilege and I'll play any position you want me to. Hell, stick me in goal in a monkey suit and a trilby and have the team pelt me with shots and I'd still bite your hand off for the chance.
Could you imagine such a scenario in the common workplace?
“Hi boss, I'm feeling a little tired this morning, so I think I'm going to have a lay-in today. I can't be sure I'll be fully rested up by tomorrow, so shall we just leave it until Wednesday? Great, see you then.” The concept is ludicrous. But that is the situation we see in the football world.
These professionals are supremely fit, highly-tuned athletes. So the very notion that they would be unable to play 270 minutes of football in a week is not only preposterous, but it should be seen as a insult to their ability.
A perfect case in study, albeit at a slightly lower level than the Premier League, is that of Andros Townsend, a young, promising winger on loan from Tottenham Hotspur at League One outfit Leyton Orient.
The 18-year-old's pace and trickery has become one of Orient's most potent threats this season, once manager Geraint Williams finally recognised his burgeoning talent and put him in the team, following a frustrating spell spent on the sidelines.
The first two months of the campaign were largely spent in exile for Townsend, Williams preferring to stick with JJ Melligan and Jason Demetriou on the flanks. Naturally, Tottenham were not happy with the situation, having loaned his services to the O's on the premise that he would gain the first-team football he needs to accelerate his development as a footballer.
So, after a run of games in the first XI, Williams then opted to drop Townsend to the bench once again, citing a lack of 'sharpness', insisting the youngster had played a lot of games and needed a break.
Now, I find it difficult to believe that Townsend would have felt the same way as his boss. The more games he gets, the brighter he shines, the more likely it is that he wins another contract with Spurs and realises his dream of becoming a Premier League footballer.
Surely, it's not until he's earning thousands of pounds and playing week in week out that Townsend starts to insist on 'resting'.
And that is something we see on a regular basis. You will often see managers, like Arsenal's Arsene Wenger, excusing several uninspiring performances at the start of a season from his big stars, citing a hangover from a major tournament – be it the European Championships or the World Cup – in the summer. Never mind the fact that these tournaments are staged months in advance of a Premier League campaign.
Perhaps we can put the situation down to the age we live in; big money, big players and big consequences. If a manager fields his ace in his pack for a match against the league's small fry, he risks losing him to injury which could rule him out for a bigger game next week.
So, maybe it is the managers who wrap these stars in layers of cotton wool that are to blame. Or perhaps it is the high-price world that this game has become enveloped in that should take the flak.
Either way, I still think these players should start putting in a few more shifts to validate their over-inflated pay packets. Get the slippers off, get the boots on and get out there to do what you're paid to do.
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