A few other clubs have had to call games off but a relatively small number of clubs. Only one club had now had two serious outbreaks. It would be us, wouldn't it?
Despite Karanka's rubbish theory to the contrary, this is going to hurt us quite badly. We are going to have unfit players and rusty players who haven't trained properly when we eventually do play again, and will have to play three games in some weeks to catch up on the backlog. It will hinder our chances of staying up.
Clearly, peoples' health is more important than football. We do not know and will never know how this happened. It just doesn't look great for us that out of 92 clubs in the league we have fared worst. It creates the impression (rightly or wrongly) that we as a club or individuals connected to the club might not have been as diligent as others. That may not be correct, but that is what people will naturally think.
First and foremost you hope that those affected make quick and full recoveries. Beyond that, my feeling is one of bitter frustration.
I agree with others that the club ought to be going on a charm offensive rather than keeping quiet.
Regardless of the reality of the outbreak, and we obviously wish the players, staff and their families a speedy recovery, saying nothing in these cir***stances will just make people suspicious.
We ought to be hearing from Warne about how gutted he is not to be playing after the positive feeling in the team after the Owls victory, and how worried he is about the build-up of games on our small squad.
The club should be coming out with factual statements about how we have followed all the required precautions and that this was unavoidable from the club's perspective and that they had received the EFL's full support in the cancellation of games..
Being quiet just fuels the rumour mill and might make some in the EFL think about penalties...
Yes,the E.F.L. do have protocols in place. Over 5200 players and staff are tested each week. A twice weekly mandatory testing programme is in place with all 72 E.F.L. clubs taking part. If there are positive tests then players/staff self isolate in line with government guidelines. The towns of Barnsley and Rotherham are second and fourth highest in the current infection rate in the country , so that might have something to do with our unfortunate predicament.
whiston01 do you mean in terms of within the football clubs the highest rate of infection? or nationally in general town by town? Just looked at the 15 places with the highest infection rates in England from covid-19 & Rotherham & Barnsley aren't among them.
-- Edited by gwru on Tuesday 9th of March 2021 04:47:57 PM
-- Edited by gwru on Tuesday 9th of March 2021 04:49:24 PM
Whiston, Crookadile and Unifier are right. Cases are falling nationally but falling faster in some areas than others. Rotherham's rates are lower than they were a while ago, but judged on the number of cases per 100,000 people it currently ranks as the fourth worst area in the country - about three times more prevalent than the national average.
