The coronavirus pandemic has brought all of world football down for the foreseeable future. The Premier League announced suspension of play until April 30, and at that point they will re-evaluate again. That said, there are still plenty of interesting Manchester United related news and notes to go over.
Let’s take a look at some of the news items trending in cyberspace right now during these very strange days and extremely uncertain times. (For today’s MUFC transfer rumors round-up, go here)
Since football ceased, everyone and I mean everyone has been weighing in on what to do about the season. So although this topic is getting tedious, hey, what’s one more, right?
Enter United and England left back Luke Shaw.
“Scrap it and start again,” Shaw said during a Combat Corona Twitch FIFA competition.
“Start it again, yeah. It’s got to be, you know. If we can’t carry it on, it’s got to be void.”
His teammate, Andreas Pereira, took a very different approach, telling ESPN in a recent interview that he would be willing to play every day in order to get the season completed. For United, there is plenty to be lost, should this entire season be eradicated. Not as much as Liverpool, obviously, but still.
The club is currently sitting fifth in the table, and that would be good to get them back into Champions League, given the UEFA ban against Manchester City. Yes, MCFC have appealed, but there is no way the courts are going get their appeal case on the docket any time soon.
United also have another way to get back into UCL, as they’re favorites to win the Europa League tournament. The Red Devils also have a great shot of winning the FA Cup, so there’s potential silverware here to be won.
Maybe the best plan is to just finish this season, at a time when it’s finally safe to do so. The virus makes the timeline, not humans. And then we go from there.
Finally, another topic dominating the football world these days is the controversy regarding players taking pay cuts, with the government even making statements regarding the perceived necessity of handsomely paid footballers to make a sacrifice.
NBC has a piece on Wayne Rooney adding his two cents to the dialogue.
The Professional Footballers Association has weighed in a few times. Now, Rooney wrote a column that appeared in The Times (subscription required) on Sunday, in which he made several points on the issue.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be back with more later.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link