Pep Guardiola is awesome.
In his latest rant, the Manchester City boss has brought up the issue of players having to play too many matches in a short timespan – this has just led to Kevin De Bruyne's serious injury.
He mentioned Thibaut Courtois and Eder Militao too.
"In my first preseason [as a player], I had 25 days to prepare the first official match against Skonto Riga to qualify to the Champions League that we eventually won. Now they give you four, five days, and then look how many ACLs [cruciate ligament injuries].
"They make you go to Asia, to the US, really strong matches, derbies, big games... And people fall, they will keep falling and falling... Because the show must go on and if Courtois isn't there, then someone else will be, right? And if Militao isn't there, then someone else will, and if Kevin [De Bruyne] isn't there, then someone else will.
"You finish the Champions League, then they go to play with the national teams for 2-3 weeks... And I'm not saying playing with the national team is bad. And then let's see the Club World Cup when the year ends, having to travel to the United States with 30-something clubs when it used to be just the Libertadores and the Champions League.
"It's too much, so... we'll have to adapt, try to go through it, train very little, stay a lot of time at home and bring energy to the games."
Pep's words make strong sense. We may keep complaining about footballers' astronomic earnings and stuff, but the truth is that their jobs have become incredibly difficult – now it's just a crazy marathon of fixtures with little rest in the summer.
It's a good thing Pep mentions Courtois and Militao as examples – FIFA and UEFA should pay more attention to what's happening to players.
Real Madrid's two key players have suffered serious injuries. They will be out for at least 6 months.
