The Premier League is aiming to finish things up with a 1 June restart date. Chelsea can expect a whirlwind of matches heading into the next season.
For all intents and purposes, this current lull in games has effectively become preseason minus the transfer gossip. What was originally a short break was extended until the end of April. Now it seems the Premier League executives are aiming to restart all the way on 1 June.
The plan itself is simple. The stadiums will undergo a deep clean for the next two months. Games will be played behind closed doors. All remaining Premier League and FA Cup games will be played within a six week time span, allowing a few weeks of “preseason” to prepare for the 2020/2021 season. The Football Association will go to FIFA and get special allowance for extensions on some contracts through the end of this season. All the broadcasters and clubs will at least get some piece of the pie they would be owed.
The season could resume earlier, but if this plan is already in place then it is probably more likely than not. It would be an absolute whirlwind to close the season and it would run straight into the next season as well.
Chelsea has nine Premier League matches left. The Blues are in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. This plan does not accommodate for the Champions League match against Bayern Munich that remains unplayed. So just from this plan alone, the Blues would be looking at ten to 12 matches played over six weeks or two matches per week. That in of itself does not seem to outlandish.
It may quickly become so with the form of the players. Think about the start of every Premier League season. Teams are finding their feet and their rhythm and they often look rough and get strange early results. That happens with a game every week. Now cram another one in there with qualifications on the line.
Not only that, but then give them four weeks of “preseason” after that to prepare for the next season. What sort of shape do they return for next season in? Preseason or midseason?
The FA seems confident they can work around the contract issue but that does not help with incoming players. The window is supposed to open when the season ends, but surely English clubs will be pushing for it to start as close to normal as possible. No English club will want to see the target they have worked on since January go elsewhere while they have to sit on their hands.
This plan seems fine given the global issues going into it, but it needs plenty of polish to make sense. As mentioned earlier in this crisis, there is not going to be a clean way to solve these issues that pleases everyone. More important is the world gets itself healthy and then go with whatever plan scrambles the league together in the least ridiculous and most fair way.
This is a way to do that. It is not perfect and there are still unanswered questions, but it is at least a path forward.