‘The whole thing is back to front’ – Wayne Rooney hits out at EFL decision
West Brom have been told by the EFL that they can hold group training sessions on May 25 but Derby captain Wayne Rooney is not best pleased by the decision.
At an EFL meeting last week, it was announced that Championship clubs will be able to begin their preparations for the season restarting in a week’s time.
A lot of people in the UK are still in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic but there appears to be a serious indication that football is getting closer to a return.
It did return in Germany over the weekend as the Bundesliga resumed behind closed doors.
Although football is back in Germany, Rooney cannot see why it should be returning in England any time soon.
Shockingly, he says that he hasn’t even heard anything from the EFL in regards to their restart plan, which means Albion captain Jake Livermore has also been in the dark.
“For me, the whole thing is back to front,” Rooney told The Times. “The most important factor for players, managers, coaches, club medical departments is what date is set for games to restart. Once that’s in place we can plot the time and type of training required to get there. The first thing Germany did was set a target date but we have yet to come up with one.
“Something that has surprised me is how little our opinions seem to count. The Premier League engaged with players via the managers and captains. But as club captain at Derby, I have not received so much as a phone call from the EFL or PFA to ask how Derby’s players feel about returning.”
West Brom players will no doubt want to resume the season so they can get back to trying to win promotion to the Premier League.
However this should only be happening if the players are fully on board with the EFL’s plan, as well as the clubs, managers and the EFL board members.
Restarting football is going to have the biggest impact on players so why are they in the dark about this? Why don’t the EFL hold a meeting with the captain of each club in the second-tier to gauge their feelings?
In other West Brom news, Albion could pay for Matheus Pereira this week.