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West Ham; The likelihood of Premier League Progress in May

By Adam Smith

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: A General view of the London Stadium, home of West Ham United as all Premier League matches are postponed until at least April 4th due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic on March 14, 2020 in London, England. It has been announced that all football league matches, including the Premier League and Women’s Super League, have been postponed until at least April 4 in response to the threat of coronavirus. This follows UEFA's decision to suspend fixtures in the Champion's League and the Europa League, as many top flight players enter self-isolation. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: A General view of the London Stadium, home of West Ham United as all Premier League matches are postponed until at least April 4th due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic on March 14, 2020 in London, England. It has been announced that all football league matches, including the Premier League and Women’s Super League, have been postponed until at least April 4 in response to the threat of coronavirus. This follows UEFA's decision to suspend fixtures in the Champion's League and the Europa League, as many top flight players enter self-isolation. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) /
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The call for restart proposals has been sent and the rough desired blueprints are up, but will there be any progress for West Ham and Premier League football as May kicks off?

Let me begin with a disclaimer that shouldn’t need to be said but is still required – the preservation of life amidst the Coronavirus outbreak and quarantine shutdown is of utmost importance. It outweighs everything including football, West Ham, and sport altogether.

Now that this has been said, it should also be realized that football is something so dear to so many and could be turned to as an escape and a bit of mental relaxation amidst a situation. As well, those in charge of formulating plans to restart football are doing nothing other than their jobs which we can all agree they are lucky enough to continue to have at this point.

The real issue with a restart is the moral dichotomy between restarting for the sanctity of the sport and the entertainment of the masses, and making the Premier League and it’s clubs owners a lot of money. Many are finding it hard to justify because so few will profit monetarily from this move.

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On to the facts. A proposal to restart the season has been presented to the Premier League clubs with the date of June 8th circled as a potential start date, as reported by the Telegraph. As many players outwardly expressed, after such a long delay in training and playing an extensive training camp would be needed, and May 18th has been circled as the day that this would kick-off as well.

The National reported on April 28th that West Ham were amongst a few select clubs who reopened their training grounds to players amidst the “Project Restart” ignition. The Hammers were joined by Arsenal and Brighton in the training ground reopening with players staying socially distanced and training individually.

So far, the actions taken have not been drastic or pushy. Instead, there seems to be some levelheadedness by all involved to set a plan out, take it slow, and try to get it right the first time in order to spoil any chance of a restart at all.

It has also been revealed that players will require facemasks when training after May 18th in the hopes of limiting any fluid transmission on the training ground. As well, the proposal for a restart has outlined twice-a-week testing for players and staff to ensure the players remain COVID-free.

The way this needs to be treated is that if one player gets tested the entire restart needs to be scrapped. There is one shot at this if it is going to happen and should a positive test be found, that is more than enough reason to shut down the entire league as each player fills a specific role in their team and no squad should be left short-handed unfairly.

Finger-pointing will undoubtedly happen from both ends of the spectrum. The higher positioned teams will say the relegation-threatened teams are using the coronavirus to get out of a relegation battle if the season is scrapped, and the lower-table teams will say the top-six want to get more money (or a title for Liverpool) and not enough thought is being given to the virus.

It’s essentially a lose-lose, which is why I believe a short-leashed, tempered approach is key to attempting a restart. Short-leashed to end the season if anyone tests positive once training, and tempered with the frequent testing and precautions being taken in this proposed three-week training camp.

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Not everyone will be happy, and some will interpret this article as well as any approach to restart football as a slap in the face of everyone concerned or fighting the virus. For that, I apologize as this is not the intention. Some semblance of normalcy would be appreciated, however, and if football could act as a beacon of light amidst so much uncertainty that should be looked at as a positive.