Tottenham rack up most Euro 2016 minutes of PL clubs

Matt Stead

Tottenham players racked up more minutes at Euro 2016 than any other Premier League club.

The English top flight was by far the most heavily-represented domestic division at the tournament, with 106 of the 552 players who travelled to France currently plying their trade there.

And a survey found that Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs bore the brunt of that. Tottenham players clocked up a total of 3,544 minutes, over 900 more than the side with the second-most minutes played – north London rivals Arsenal.

Eleven Tottenham players saw action at Euro 2016 with nine named in at least three starting line-ups in a total of 38 starts overall, meaning Pochettino may need to rotate carefully with a Champions League campaign to negotiate as well as domestic competition.

Six Arsenal players racked up a combined 28 starts and 2,625 minutes of playing time. Manchester City had the same number of starters as Arsenal but accumulated a slightly lower 2,499 minutes on the pitch.

Liverpool were the only club to match Tottenham in having 11 different players feature at the tournament but the Reds’ representatives clocked up a much lower 1,774 minutes between them and only had two players – Joe Allen and Martin Skrtel – who started more than three matches.

Allen, who started all six matches in Wales’ incredible run to the semi-finals, probably did not expect to be Liverpool’s busiest player and his former team-mates at Swansea were also far more involved than anticipated.

The historic Welsh showing also saw Swans duo Ashley Williams and Neil Taylor feature in every starting XI, while their two team-mates – Iceland’s Gylfi Sigurdsson and Poland’s Lukasz Fabianski – were involved until the quarter-final stage.

As a quartet they made 21 appearances and played for 2,042 minutes: more than their peers at Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea. However with Swansea having looked shaky last season and lacking the squad depth of the aforementioned trio, their fans will surely be hoping that the summer’s achievements will not be to the detriment of their next domestic campaign.

For all the extra care that the Premier League’s various medical departments will be taking to ensure that their stars are ready for another intense season, they should spare a thought for their peers at Juventus.

The Italian champions were by far the most heavily-represented at Euro 2016, with their players collectively starting 50 matches and featuring for 4,871 minutes.