Sam Allardyce said England’s festive programme exerts such a debilitating effect on players that in the absence of a formal winter break club trips to warmer climes in the new year have become imperative.
Many teams head to Arabia or the Canary Islands in January or February, with Sunderland’s manager sharing the general preference for Dubai. “The Christmas period is relentless,” Allardyce said. “All you do is travel, play, recover, travel, play, recover.
“More and more figures [statistics] prove that winter breaks work. My previous teams have had breaks in Dubai for five or six days in February. The stats tell you that, over 14 years, Bolton, Blackburn, West Ham have improved their physical output just by five days’ break.
“Just by relaxing for five days. We don’t train, we tick over, we relax, we get away from football and get a bit of sun. The lads are physically and mentally drained from the Christmas period.”
Accordingly Allardyce will be urging Ellis Short, Sunderland’s owner, to sanction a trip to the United Arab Emirates. He believes the potential boost could possibly save the Wearsiders from relegation.
“We just get the players relaxed in Dubai,” he said. “Switch them off and tell them they don’t have to worry about football. Just relax and come back and get ready for the big push at the end of the season. In physical terms you get a great benefit. Every team I’ve had has always physically done better, which generally gives you better results. And that’s only a five-day break.”
A winter break of the sort employed in Germany and elsewhere would be even better. “There’s a lot of research that shows European teams have less injuries after their mid-season break than we do,” Allardyce said. “We continue to have a lot of injuries. I’ve watched teams play. Last year I think three Chelsea players got injured [at Christmas time] in one game because of the fatigue. Especially those boys in the Champions League, they go through a lot.”
When Allardyce was playing at centre-half for assorted clubs, including Sunderland, teams routinely had games on 26 and 27 December. “Contrary to those old players who say it wasn’t a problem, we were knackered,” he said. “They’re talking rubbish. We couldn’t wait for the game to finish, we were that tired.”
