Project Restart appears to be like a puzzle. A puzzle where you have no idea what the end of the puzzle looks like and you only get a piece or two at a time that sometimes fit together, and other times don’t. And sometimes when you get a new piece, you realize that older pieces that appeared to fit together no longer fit together. And sometimes, when you get a new piece to the puzzle you realize that certain other pieces no longer matter to the puzzle and they can be thrown away.
In this puzzle, occasionally pieces get sick and no one is sure exactly what it means when a puzzle piece gets sick but it definitely isn’t good. Also, this puzzle is trying to be put together by a large group of people who all do puzzles differently and care more about certain parts of the puzzle than others, while also having people who deep down would maybe prefer if the puzzle never got finished at all. Also, you know that sooner or later, more people are going to join the puzzling party and their opinions will change everything and possibly make all the previous work worthless.
Oh yeah…and you’re being timed to finish it all, and at the end of this puzzle someone is getting sued.
If you ask me, that’s a flawless comparison. Kidding, it’s pretty forced but what an absolute nightmare this attempt at games has become for anyone hoping to achieve an outcome that acknowledges every opinion and aspect of this restart. We haven’t even heard from the players themselves on this topic which could put an end to any attempt to resume games, but the government has given the greenlight to return to training – moving this restart forward.
What are the lingering issues? Too many list, but here are a few:
- Player safety
- PLDG’s 100 concerns over the return to training
- Neutral venues or played at home/away
- Relegation
- Championship promotion
- Mass player testing
- Stadium security and controlling fan congregation
- Player’s willingness to play
- Player contracts
- Schedule adjustments – match fixtures, transfer window, next season
- Players still testing positive – Brighton’s third, Dynamo Dresden
- What happens for a player when they get sick?
- What happens to the team when a player gets sick?
These are simply a few off the top of my head and I didn’t even dive into the aspect of broadcasting pay, club losses, sporting merit and integrity, alternate options for ending the season, and all the reasons I haven’t listed that someone will gladly comment or message me about.
Simply put, some things are being worked out, while other issues seem to move further from being solved by the day. This makes it understandable that some people feel a good amount of these issues will be swept under the rug with the league being openly determined to see things resume and resumed in a timely manner.
It feels like there is some clear writing on the wall that forecasts how these restarts are likely to go. How a successful restart will demand an almost perfect series of decisions in order to prevent players from being exposed to Coronavirus and stay healthy. If I could look ahead into the future, I believe it would show an attempt at playing games that results in more than a few players testing positive, teams having to go back into isolation, and the league left to find a solution based on ‘sporting merit’ as they say.
The league is determined to restart, which means there will likely be some form of restart barring players refusal to play, but I cannot say it is something I full approve of. I will leave it there for today. Hoping everyone is healthy.
Gunner Thoughts 