Brendan Rodgers
The Premier League are in danger of accusations of bias unless they provide clarity on their decisions over Covid postponements, Brendan Rodgers believes. With two of the so-called big six seeing their requests accepted, Rodgers was asked if there was a danger the Premier League is going to be seen as showing a bias to certain clubs, and that they need to clarify the issue.
Brendan Rodgers replied: “I think it’s a great angle to take. I think you are on the right lines.”
Albeit, after Rodgers had spoken, a side outside the big six club in Watford had their game at Burnley called off just two-and-a-half hours before kick-off following a Covid outbreak. It was also put to Rodgers that Spurs would have an advantage going into Thursday’s game, which was going ahead despite City being in a similar situation to that at Tottenham when they had their match at the weekend called off. He replied: “100 per cent.”
Brendan Rodgers added: “They (the Premier League) feel we have enough players available. I’d be pretty guaranteed that games that have been off before wouldn’t have had the same impact in terms of availability as we’ve had. That’s the nuts and bolts of it. They feel we’ll still have enough players to play the game. That clarity is important. We could easily have applied for the weekend’s game with Newcastle to be looked at, in terms of availability of players. We wanted to play the game even though we were very limited. You could see from our bench the availability we had. The risk of injury as well, that was in our thinking. Some of the players we feel we have to change, we can’t do that, purely because of unavailability of other players. You can’t just say: ‘Well you’ve got young players.’ There are not many in this league who want to play young players more than me, but it can also harm a kid’s career by putting them in at the wrong time. But still we went ahead with the game and I’m glad we did. We played well, got the result, and then got some of our young players some more experience, but that was us virtually at the limit, I felt. From that we picked up another couple of injuries that is a result of a Covid issue because we can’t rest players and recover them. So that was the chance for us to at least get the Premier League to have a look at it but our request was rejected and it’s disappointing. It would be nice to have that clarity to ensure it’s a fair competition for everyone.”
City’s game against Tottenham is set to be broadcast live on BT Sport, one of the Premier League’s broadcasters in the UK, along with Sky and Amazon, who jointly pay billions of pounds to show the matches. Asked if there could be pressure from the TV companies to keep the games on,
Brendan Rodgers said: “I’m pretty sure that’s the case, yes. In terms of players, managers, coaches, we all want to play the games. But, ultimately the health of a player is priority. If you have players available, then you get a greater product. The reality is that whatever team you put out, supporters will demand you win the game. For some squads, the likes of ourselves, that’s a real challenge at the moment. That won’t stop us, we’ll go in super positive and the team will play with that energy and commitment to get the result. But we’ve seen this season that when you’re missing key players in key positions then it can really hinder you and go against you. What’s centric, and has to be, is the health and welfare of players, and that’s nothing to do with money. These guys were getting run into the ground enough as it was. You can’t say that because they’re on a certain amount a week, that they should be able to play. They’re not robots. These players have been playing constantly now for these last numbers of years and we’re now into a stage where it’s becoming really difficult for them. The priority must be them, and how we can help and support them. Finances are secondary to that.”
