WADDLE ON EUROPE
- BY THOMAS THORNTON
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
We spoke to former Sunderland and England player Chris Waddle about our upcoming first European adventure for 53 years via New Betting Sites.
EUROPE
“Absolutely amazing. You talk about teams who get promoted in the modern day, basically they’re always favourites to get relegated. I’ve got to say, you’ve got to take your hat off to them. They’ve been well-ran, spent a lot of money but it’s paid off. Qualifying for Europe will obviously help them make more money and strengthen again where they need to. I think the good thing about Sunderland is that when they actually came up, looking at the players they signed, a lot of them are from the likes of Holland and Belgium. Sunderland tapped into those markets and they’ve been a success.”
A LOT OF GAMES
“The players will be looking forward to it but with the Europa League they’ll be playing a lot of Thursday nights and getting back on the Friday. You could be playing in London on the Sunday, it’s non-stop. You’ve seen with the teams in these tournaments: Tottenham have won it and had two drastic seasons after that, Crystal Palace are in the final but finished in the bottom six in the Premier League. It does take its toll. I don’t think Sunderland are ever expected to win the league or qualify for the Champions League but you need to add to the squad and hope you don’t get many injuries. You need to add four or five players if you want to compete seriously - and let’s be honest, apart from the Champions League the other two European competitions are quite accessible to win. We've seen that with Palace and Villa, so Sunderland can go into that tournament full of confidence. But do you get distracted, is there a lot of fatigue creeping in, is the squad strong enough to rest four or five players on a weekend? They’ve got all this to come, it’s all new, I’m sure they really are looking forward because they’ve got a very good chance of doing well in it, but the main thing for every football club is to stay in the Premier League. That’s where the money is at. It’s great to win honours but the chairman and the manager will definitely be thinking the priority is to stay in the Premier League. It’s going to be very difficult and very demanding on the players.”
STRENGTH IN DEPTH
“You get injuries, we know that. Sunderland have probably had three or four this year where they’ve managed to nurse their way through it. But going into Europe, you can’t keep playing the same team Thursday and Sunday. You might have another league game midweek and then again on the weekend. It is total football. Some players will feel the strain, some players will be so hyped up about playing in Europe that they’ll come off the pace in the league. You can’t do that, you have to be fully at it every week. It’s going to be an interesting season for sure. Look at the neighbours, Newcastle. Every time they qualify for the Champions League, the following year is a disaster, they leak goals and their consistency goes. It’s very demanding. Footballers are fit, of course, but football isn’t just about fitness, it’s about mentality as well. It’s new to a lot of these players, I’m sure they’re looking forward to it, but I’m sure the club will keep reminding them that the priority is the Premier League.”
