Coming from Germany, where the Bundesliga takes a winter break lasting 30 days, Pep Guardiola made his views known on what the Premier League demands from its players over December and January. “I know here in England the show must go on, but that's not normal guys,” he complained after Manchester City played 10 games in the space of a month. “We're going to kill the players.”
Someone at the Premier league must have heard Guardiola’s pleas because news has surfaced this week that, for the first time, a winter break is being considered for after 2019. That’s when the current TV deal expires, meaning a break (most likely in January) could be negotiated into the next contract.
This would be welcomed by most clubs, and players. The argument has long been made that the Premier League only serves to harm itself, and the national team in major tournament years, by playing all the way through winter, when the rest of Europe takes at least some sort of break.
However, a winter break in the Premier League will only work if clubs resist the opportunity to make more money from it. Even without an official winter break, Manchester United still took the chance this year to head to Dubai for some warm weather training. How would they use a two-week break? Would they resist the urge to play money-spinning friendlies during that time?
Look at how the purpose of pre-season - to prepare players for the season ahead - has been hijacked for commercial reasons. Premier League clubs don’t head to the Far-east or the United States for the best preparation, they head there because that’s where they can make the most money.
The same thing could happen to the winter break. It’s easy to imagine a mid-season International Champions Cup, with Premier League clubs playing games around the world to huge crowds. A winter break would be an opportunity for some much-needed rest and recuperation midway through the season, but pitted against the potential financial benefit of a spare two weeks, it might prove difficult for many to refuse the money.
This is something the Premier League would have to guard against. It might have to be written into whatever new TV contract is agreed from beyond the 2018/19 season - that if a winter break is to be imposed, then it must be used as exactly that - a break. If it was up to Guardiola, this wouldn’t be an issue. His pleas for a period of rest are genuine. But people like Guardiola don’t tend to hold the purse strings at Premier League clubs.
