Why I Hate International Breaks

By: Martin | September 10th, 2009

I knew it was too much to ask for for our players to get through an international break without getting injured, and I was right. Andrei Arshavin, who had to come off injured with a groin injury against Manchester United, rushed back too early to play in yesterday’s game against Wales. Guus Hiddink, being the loyal Chelsea man he is, made sure Arshavin played all 90 minutes, and of course he re-injured his groin, and will now miss our next two matches–the league fixture against Manchester City and the Champions League match-up with Standard Liege (UPDATE: Apparently he’ll miss the league match-up next weekend against Wigan, as well. And I wouldn’t think Wenger would risk him in a Carling Cup match, so we won’t see him until September 26 at the earliest). Thanks a million, Guus! Hope Abramovich paid you well for that!

It’s just infuriating. Wenger is, understandably, upset. The international teams, especially in situations like this where they don’t have another match for another month, have zero incentive to protect a player’s health. What does Russia care if Arshavin is out for a couple of weeks? As long as he’s healthy again by October, it doesn’t hurt them. Meanwhile, the club, which pays Arshavin’s salary, and in the cases of some players, is responsible for the player’s development and training, is the one who suffers.

Honestly, at this point, I’m all in favor of doing away with all these international breaks, and just having a few international breaks per year–give them all of January and the summer. Instead of playing qualifiers two at a time, which is a pain because then you have to go back and remember who is playing well, which country is in which group, what the scenarios are, etc., why not have them play 5 or 6 at a time over the course of a month? This would build up momentum and be more exciting, almost like a mini tournament, and allow team members to get used to playing together for a longer period of time. More importantly, if Guus Hiddink wanted to play a player just coming off injury for 90 minutes, that would be his prerogative, but if theplayer re-injured himself, it would be the international team that suffered the consequences. I guarantee you under this scenario international teams wouldn’t be quite so callous about players’ injuries.

Elsewhere, the news was apparently good, although I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t hear about another knock or two as the players return to England today. Rosicky played 60 minutes for Czech Republic, which is good news–I doubt he’ll play on Saturday, but we could see him on Wednesday. Fabregas played and scored for Spain to clinch a world cup berth. Eduardo scored Croatia’s lone goal in the 5-1 beatdown they took from England. Bendtner scored in Denmark’s 1-1 draw with Albania. Arsenal alum Thierry Henry scored in France’s 1-1 draw with Serbia. The official site has a full round-up here.

At any rate, Arshavin is out–I’ll cover this more in my preview tomorrow, but I imagine either Eduardo will start in Arshavin’s place along the front line, or we’ll go to a more standard 4-4-2 with Diaby getting a start. Here’s hoping it’s the former–for all the controversy about the dive, Eduardo’s been playing well lately, and I get the sense he’s pissed off and has something to prove, and could have a goal or two in him.

I also hate the international break because of the mind-numbing boredom it brings. As evidence of this, the official site unveiled its first in a series of “Fantasy Battles.” The concept is, basically, that an Arsenal player sits down and answers a series of stupid questions about “who would win a fight between…” Yes, I’m serious.

Anyway, in the initial installment, Gael Clichy is in the hot seat. Clichy’s picks:

1. A bear could beat a crocodile (because “it’s strong and I think it’s really powerful”)
2. Spiderman could beat Batman
3. Lara Croft could beat Wonder Woman

I’m honestly not sure which is more troubling–that our club and our players are spending time on stuff like this, or that Gael Clichy actually thinks Lara Croft could beat Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is a lost Amazon with super strength and super speed (not to mention command of the animal kingdom and an invisible jet). Lara Croft has…what? Big boobs and a gun? Pfft. Regular readers will know that I’ve criticized Clichy’s decisionmaking over the past year or so, but even I didn’t think it was this bad.

This is what the international breaks reduce us to–talking about crocodiles and Wonder Woman instead of football. Thank God it’s over, hopefully we won’t hear about any more injuries today. Man City preview coming tomorrow.