EFL club chief outlines when he expects Ch’ship campaign to restart for West Brom & other clubs
Charlton Athletic director of football Steve Gallen has dropped a considerable clue as to when West Brom will be able to resume their Championship campaign.
The Baggies have yet to receive any official indication from the EFL as to when they can expect to restart their promotion push amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
But the Premier League is due to kick things off again on June 17th, and it would appear that the Addicks are working towards a similar date of Saturday June 20th.
Speaking to The Athletic, Gallen said: “Originally, when we spoke to the EFL last week and they gave us directions, they pretty much said, ‘You’ve got three weeks from Monday [May 25] until you play games’.
“Now that looks like it’s been pushed back another week. It looks like it’s going to be four weeks of training.
“First week: non-contact. Second week: we’ll go back to contact. Third week: you’ll do more tactical stuff.
“And the fourth week: preparing for matches as well as physical training, like you’d normally do during the season.”
This is a really promising update for the Baggies.
We all want to see Albion finish their promotion push properly, and that means playing our nine remaining matches and returning to the top flight on our own merit, as opposed to off the back of a points per game average.
Gallen’s reveal certainly makes it sounds as if that is an increasing likelihood, while the extra boost that another week of training will give Albion in terms of fitness can only be a good thing too.
Former West Brom keeper Boaz Myhill has raised his concerns over the issues that a short period of preparation could cause for players, but a few extra sessions, combined with Slaven Bilic’s claim that his squad have put in some “exceptional” work during isolation, should go some way towards allaying those fears.
In other West Brom news, Times journo delivers Championship restart update, West Brom and Leeds likely deemed ‘high risk’.
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