Football stopping could bring permanent change, says Wolves boss

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo is worried about the impact of a second halt to football as ‘everything could change’.

Premier League football resumed in June last year after a three month break.

The league was halted amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, in order to prevent transmission amongst players and staff.

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There have been calls for a ‘circuit break’ to the current season, with some managers worried about their health.

But Santo is concerned about the permanent impact of halting the top flight again.

Speaking ahead of Wolves’ match against Everton, he said: “If we stop everything will change. A new football will come, probably with a Super League, probably with other competitions. It’ll be a matter of which clubs will survive. It’s a tough decision to make.

“I don’t know what is better. What I’m afraid of is, if the decision is to stop, football we know now will not be the same. This is my biggest fear. The schedule will go crazy and it’ll be impossible to finish the league and think about the Euros.

“We cannot move forward and go back to a normal situation. The virus and pandemic is affecting things a lot, the increase of cases is growing in a scary way. This is what my main concern is.

“Things have changed, almost a year ago we were stopping because we didn’t know what was happening. It was something we hadn’t experienced. There were a lot of doubts.

“After the restart everyone made a big effort. There were protocols, meetings, things exchanged, we were sure no matter what we were playing because we only needed 14 players. Now things have changed and we are starting to think about stopping again.

“If you have a crisis the strong will survive, what about the rest? My personal view, when I have an awareness of what’s going around, you will not find the same model we have now.”

The Premier League is adamant that it will not stop the season, going so far as admitting that it hasn’t even thought about it.