Who is popular today?

Pep Guardiola has raised the prospect of strike action and Rafael Benítez has claimed “money is now managing the game” as anger grows among Premier League managers over players welfare.
The Premier League rejected Everton’s request to postpone their St Stephen’s Day game at Burnley owing to five positive Covid cases and six injuries in Benitez’s squad. The Everton manager believes his club are being punished for not closing their training ground and that the league’s integrity – as well as its profitability as a sellable, televised product – could be damaged by fulfilling fixtures with academy players.
Guardiola has gone further, suggesting more direct action may be required for the game’s authorities to heed concerns over the demands placed on players.
Manchester City’s manager said: “Should the players and the managers be all together and make a strike? Just through words it’s not going to be solved. For Fifa, the Premier League, the broadcasters, the business is more important than their welfare. The simplest example is all around the world they have five substitutions; here it’s still three. Tell me one argument to take care of players’ welfare than this one? Here, where everyone decides for themselves, we didn’t do it.”
It was Premier League clubs, not the organisation itself, that voted to reintroduce the three substitutes rule but there is increasing concern among managers at the festive schedule continuing amid a record number of Covid cases.
Clearing the backlog of fixtures in an already condensed season is another issue to be addressed, with two St Stephen’s Day matches – Liverpool v Leeds and Wolves v Watford – called off on Thursday. Benítez believes the quality of the Premier League, and by extension its attractiveness to TV rights holders, will suffer.
He said: “Contracts finish in June but we finish playing in May. June could be the right time [to play these games] but then we would have to talk about the World Cup every two years or the World Cup in the winter.
“Money is now managing the game and it is quite complicated to find the right solution. We are professionals and have to manage the situation but the fans, everybody, want to see the best players on the pitch and playing at the best level possible. You sell the TV rights because you play nice and exciting football, but then all these things happen.”
The Premier League concluded Everton have enough players to fulfil the Burnley fixture. Their available contingent includes Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has not played for two months because of a thigh muscle re-injury, and several academy players with top-flight experience. One, the 18-year-old midfielder, Tyler Onyango, has made two 89th-minute substitute appearances in the Premier League and an 85th-minute substitute’s appearance in the FA Cup.
Benítez, who believes his players caught Covid when sharing a dressingroom at Stamford Bridge last week, said: “They just talk about the numbers – the 13 plus one keeper – but we have nine outfield players available plus three keepers and have to bring in five young players who it seems have enough experience to play.
“But the reality is some of these players include Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has been out injured for two months. We have other players with knocks and we will have to push them. They are not fit and who will take responsibility if something happens to them because they have to play 90 minutes? We are exposing them.
“If you have players coming back from Covid-19 then they have to do an ECG. Who will take responsibility for these players if they are on the bench and they have to play? It’s a very clear example of just don’t follow the rules, because the rule is very unfair in this case.
“Some teams close their training ground. We tried to do things properly and maybe we are being punished for that. In our case the analysis was simple – they looked at the numbers and said you can play. But the reality is it is a risk for some of our players.”
Despite airing the possibility of a strike, Guardiola does not believe there is appetite for one. “No I don’t think so, because we want to play, we want to continue,” the City manager said.
“Make the people happy going to he stadium on the 26th, 27th, 29th, 31st and 1st and play games because we love to do that. I’m not saying there’s a reason to make a strike. But when people say World Cups, European Cups, Carabao Cup semi-finals over two legs and FA Cups and the Premier League . . . more teams and more games and more games and less holidays.”
Manchester United’s Ralf Rangnick also expressed support for five substitutions and said most players would back that. The Premier League allowed five changes near the start of the pandemic and the interim manager said: “It was the right decision to do that, to have more options to change players, to save energy, especially if they have only just recovered from Covid. And the same is true right now. We are in a similar situation.” – Guardian