Arsenal might have missed unearthing their next academy star thanks to Premier League’s soft Covid rules

On Saturday, Bayern Munich handed a debut to a 16-year-old midfielder called Paul Wanner.

A few years ago, Bayern plucked Wanner from FV Ravensburg, a small side in the fifth-tier of the German pyramid, and he has since developed quickly and progressed well. Even so, it is unlikely the teenager would be anywhere near the Bayern first team had Covid-19 not been around.

The week before his debut, Bayern tried to get their game against Borussia Monchengladbach postponed due to a squad depleted by coronavirus. When the league ruled they play, manager Julian Nagelsmann included Wanner in the squad to make up the numbers.

Postponement rules agreed by Germany’s top-flight clubs at the start of the pandemic have a higher threshold than in the Premier League. They require 14 outfield players plus a goalkeeper to be available for a fixture to go ahead, as opposed to the Premier League’s 13+1.

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But where the leagues differ is that German clubs are expected to include academy players, whereas Under 21 players do not have to make up the numbers in the Premier League unless they have played a competitive game this season.

So against Monchengladbach, Nagelsmann gave 19-year-old Malik Tillman his first start, handed a debut to 18-year-old Lucas Copado from the bench and Wanner was in the dugout but did not play.

Wanner made the bench again for Bayern against Cologne a week later, but this time he came on, making him the youngest player ever to play for the club. Only time will tell what that might do for the teenager’s career, but a 16-year-old playing for Bayern Munich is no mean feat and his confidence will be running high.

Over in Spain, meanwhile, La Liga clubs are also expected to turn to youth during this problematic period. As long as five first-team players are available and the club can make up a squad of 13 plus a goalkeeper, the fixture goes ahead.

City are one of few clubs not to request a game be postponed due to Covid (Photo: Reuters)

This is where it appears the Premier League has tied itself in knots and missed an opportunity to prove how productive their glittering academies truly are. Handing out a few debuts would, at the very least, massage the numbers, boost the awfully low 97 per cent of academy footballers who fail to play even a single match in the Premier League despite years – perhaps more than a decade – of devotion to the cause.

There was widespread anger over the weekend at the decision to grant Arsenal a postponement despite having only one positive Covid case when they submitted their application.

But they were, in fact, fully within the rules. And those rules are in place now and, whether Spurs or Gary Neville like it or not, there appears no chance of redress until the end of the season.

The north London derby was the 21st fixture postponed and to change the regulations now, despite Tottenham’s misgivings about the decision, would torch the remaining shreds of integrity this season possesses. 

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The only tweak to the postponement rules agreed at the start of the pandemic has been that youth players handed a debut in the recent FA Cup third round matches would not then count towards the Under 21 players with requisite experience to be included in squads. A tweak that appears only to further decrease the chances of Under 21 players being given a shot for the remainder of the season. 

If Premier League clubs don’t trust their academy teenagers now then when exactly are they ever going to trust them? When squads are cut by quarantine, as injuries mount due to a lack of rotation, as more games pile ever higher, isn’t this the perfect opportunity for teenagers to prove they can make the transition, to be given a shot they might otherwise not have had?

Clubs hungrily discuss creating pathways from academies to first teams, yet when it comes to the crunch more doors are closed. Who knows, had clubs been told they must look to youth teams to fulfil fixtures, the north London derby would have gone ahead, and one of them might have discovered a Wanner.

Evidence growing in favour of footballers getting vaccinated

Premier League footballers have been criticised for their refusal to have the Covid-19 vaccination, but perhaps new studies showing how catching the virus could directly affect them might be the tonic they need to change their minds.

While the virus is less likely to make a group of fit, healthy, young men seriously ill, new research published in The Economist has found that performance levels dropped for several months in players who have had Covid.

Economists at Heinrich Heine University and the University of Reading analysed more than 200 players in the German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A and found that for months after contracting the virus players played almost 10 per cent fewer minutes and pass completion fell by six per cent. And the effects of Long Covid are still yet to be fully understood.

If getting jabbed for the wider good isn’t for players, maybe doing it for themselves might convince them.

from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3Ki1XDc