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As you may well be aware, it is at this time of year that a number of Europe's biggest leagues (including La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga) postpone the continuation of the current domestic season for a few weeks over Christmas as part of a Winter Break that allows all players to feel more relaxed and less-pressured during the the cold weather, which apparently helps them to feel refreshed and ready to give it their all when the season resumes a few weeks later.
England's Premiership and the lower divisions of the Football League are different to almost-all other top leagues in European football today, as they do not participate in such a break, meaning that your Man United's and Arsenal's can still be found playing regularly throughout the months of December and January, in both the league and FA Cup. Doesn't it seem strange to you that the Premiership - regarded as the greatest league in the world - doesn't follow on with the same rules of it's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed competitors??
England's biggest and brightest clubs may not take-part in any kind of mid-season break at the moment, but that doesn't mean to say that it hasn't been considered...
Only a few weeks ago there were reports floating-around claiming that the English FA may be considering plans to introduce a mid-winter break within the next few years. And even England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has backed the idea numorous times after experiencing it for himself in his days at Lazio, and more recently - prior-to this years' World Cup when he was surprised to see how tired his England squad was after another non-stop 38 league game+ had taken its toll.
Many people believe that the addittion of a mid-season break at winter time would benefit England's Premier League sides heavily - just like it has done for teams Deportivo and Valencia in Spain who've in the past come-back from a rest to go on to maintain their position ontop of the league and hold-off the favourites Barcelona and Real Madrid for one more year. Without a break half-way through they may not have been able to have sustained such consistency and good form.
The second-half of a season for the average top-of-the-league club can be something of a nightmare to many players and manager alike. Not only will they have to keep away from the teams below them in the league as the title race begins to really heat-up, but the FA Cup begins at the start of the year, Champions' League Group Phase 2 resumes soon-after, and then there's also the possibillity of playing at Wembley (well, the Millennium Stadium for now) in the League Cup final.
And with the possibillity of World Cup/European Championship Qualifiers in-between, with the final tournament to play in afterwards, every 2 years, you can see why managers like Mr.Eriksson are supporting the idea.
It does sound like it could really benefit the likes of Man United who have struggled to retain their titles in the past, but would it really be that great?
Surely there must be some bad-points somewhere....?
First of all, before anyone even considerd introducing such a system that has worked well in elsewhere in Europe, I think we should take a closer-look at what our top-division is all-about, and what it's really like.
Inititally, each team must play every-other team in the 20-team league twice a season in the Premiership alone. That totals-up to 38 league games. Many of which will be against the likes of United, Arsenal, and Liverpool, in games that can really require your Relegation candidates to work-hard for survival and all-3-points. And when you then add to that list the possibillity of another 10+ matches from the 2 domestic Cup competitions (without Replays), and at-least another 12 matches in Europe if your team is doing that well, then you really can see why a break is in-need.
But an English league season (for a Premiership side) only lasts around 9-10 months - between August of the first year, and May of the second. And from last-years' 2001/02 campaign alone you can see how it is hard-enough craming all those 50+ fixtures into just 10 months, without it over-running too-far into the World Cup warm-ups.
So it's bad enough now, without another 2 weeks-or-so stuffed in the middle somewhere that would increase the fixture-pile-up problem that has plagued managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arséne Wenger in the past.
Winter time is undoubtabley the coldest time of any year - obviously! It's also a time when even the heated pitches of Old Trafford, Anfield, and Newcatsle's St.James' Park can be frozen-over and turned into ice-skating rinks in only a matter of hours. If a pitch is frozen solid, then no football can be played on it - for obvious health and safety reasons. And when this happens, and a match is postponed or cancelled, that fixture is usually stuck-onto the end of the fixture list, giving teams at least one more match to cram in before the end of May. But by avoiding matches in the winter, there would be less games to get cancelled and postponed, meaning a smaller-chance of having fixtures pile-up at the seasons' end like they normally do.
However... we would only be able to avoid a 2-or-3 weeks of the cold, and the chances are the pitches could still freeze-over both before and after that. And with England being the rainy-old place that it is, it's also likely that a lot of games could be rained-off anyway - just like the Barcelona-Newcastle game on Tuesday, even if that was in Spain. So it's not like a winter break would really help-us-out that much anyway, despite what you may initially think.
From it's first match in August when the title's blown wide-open, to the very-last game in May when it's all so tight at-the-top, the Premiership overall seems to never dissapoint. I believe this is partially down to the way it "flows" nicely with each-and-every team - no matter how great, or how small - giving it their-all week-in, week-out, right untill the very-last full-time whistle. The teams like Arsenal who are challenging for the title will play to their very-best in almost every-single game, and may even go unbeaten for long periods of time (as we've already seen this year). And then there are the teams at the bottom, like West Ham today. Sides filled with players of low-determination and work-rates with very-little hope left of their club surviving. But still... they'll give it all they've got, and fight for every-ball like there's no tommorrow!
But what would a 2-or-3 week break in the winter do to this?
It's called a 'break', and yes, that is what I believe it would do; "break"-up the consistency and exciting flow of everyone's favourite domestic competition, making teams from both the top and bottom ends of the table look completely different when the players return to first-team action after Christmas. Sure, they may feel refreshed, and they may have also had some fun in a friendly winter tournament with Brondby and a few others, but after having not played an Arsenal or a Chelsea for a while, part of their fighting spirit will have died. And you never know... Being the over-payed flops that many-a-footballer are today, some may even begin to decrease their work-rate and put in less-effort as the winter break becomes only a few-weeks-away.
And after thinking about all that over-and-over-again, I fail to see how the addittion of a mid-season winter break would really benefit the Premiership and English football as a whole, in the not-too-distant future.
The only real use I can see for it is to give manager time to shop-around for any bargain-buys when the Transfer Window re-opens briefly, just like they are able to do in the summer.
The Premiership is fine the way it is - there's nothing anyone can do to it to make it any better or easier. And why would we want things to be easier, anyway? After all, it's all that excitment and great football that makes the league so damn-exciting to watch, and well-worthy of its place above Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, and all the rest! By extending the length of the season we would only have to have teams cut from the league so it doesn't overflow into the summers' international tournaments. And with less teams, there'd be a lot-less action, drama, and nail-biting moments that would leave you on the edge of your seat like the Premiership we know and love today.
And anyway... It's fun to be able to laugh at those over-payed panzies as they freeze their nuts off in the ice and snow, while you're sat at home, melting by the radiator with a beer in one, remote in the other! :D
England's Premiership and the lower divisions of the Football League are different to almost-all other top leagues in European football today, as they do not participate in such a break, meaning that your Man United's and Arsenal's can still be found playing regularly throughout the months of December and January, in both the league and FA Cup. Doesn't it seem strange to you that the Premiership - regarded as the greatest league in the world - doesn't follow on with the same rules of it's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed competitors??
England's biggest and brightest clubs may not take-part in any kind of mid-season break at the moment, but that doesn't mean to say that it hasn't been considered...
Only a few weeks ago there were reports floating-around claiming that the English FA may be considering plans to introduce a mid-winter break within the next few years. And even England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has backed the idea numorous times after experiencing it for himself in his days at Lazio, and more recently - prior-to this years' World Cup when he was surprised to see how tired his England squad was after another non-stop 38 league game+ had taken its toll.
Many people believe that the addittion of a mid-season break at winter time would benefit England's Premier League sides heavily - just like it has done for teams Deportivo and Valencia in Spain who've in the past come-back from a rest to go on to maintain their position ontop of the league and hold-off the favourites Barcelona and Real Madrid for one more year. Without a break half-way through they may not have been able to have sustained such consistency and good form.
The second-half of a season for the average top-of-the-league club can be something of a nightmare to many players and manager alike. Not only will they have to keep away from the teams below them in the league as the title race begins to really heat-up, but the FA Cup begins at the start of the year, Champions' League Group Phase 2 resumes soon-after, and then there's also the possibillity of playing at Wembley (well, the Millennium Stadium for now) in the League Cup final.
And with the possibillity of World Cup/European Championship Qualifiers in-between, with the final tournament to play in afterwards, every 2 years, you can see why managers like Mr.Eriksson are supporting the idea.
It does sound like it could really benefit the likes of Man United who have struggled to retain their titles in the past, but would it really be that great?
Surely there must be some bad-points somewhere....?
First of all, before anyone even considerd introducing such a system that has worked well in elsewhere in Europe, I think we should take a closer-look at what our top-division is all-about, and what it's really like.
Inititally, each team must play every-other team in the 20-team league twice a season in the Premiership alone. That totals-up to 38 league games. Many of which will be against the likes of United, Arsenal, and Liverpool, in games that can really require your Relegation candidates to work-hard for survival and all-3-points. And when you then add to that list the possibillity of another 10+ matches from the 2 domestic Cup competitions (without Replays), and at-least another 12 matches in Europe if your team is doing that well, then you really can see why a break is in-need.
But an English league season (for a Premiership side) only lasts around 9-10 months - between August of the first year, and May of the second. And from last-years' 2001/02 campaign alone you can see how it is hard-enough craming all those 50+ fixtures into just 10 months, without it over-running too-far into the World Cup warm-ups.
So it's bad enough now, without another 2 weeks-or-so stuffed in the middle somewhere that would increase the fixture-pile-up problem that has plagued managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arséne Wenger in the past.
Winter time is undoubtabley the coldest time of any year - obviously! It's also a time when even the heated pitches of Old Trafford, Anfield, and Newcatsle's St.James' Park can be frozen-over and turned into ice-skating rinks in only a matter of hours. If a pitch is frozen solid, then no football can be played on it - for obvious health and safety reasons. And when this happens, and a match is postponed or cancelled, that fixture is usually stuck-onto the end of the fixture list, giving teams at least one more match to cram in before the end of May. But by avoiding matches in the winter, there would be less games to get cancelled and postponed, meaning a smaller-chance of having fixtures pile-up at the seasons' end like they normally do.
However... we would only be able to avoid a 2-or-3 weeks of the cold, and the chances are the pitches could still freeze-over both before and after that. And with England being the rainy-old place that it is, it's also likely that a lot of games could be rained-off anyway - just like the Barcelona-Newcastle game on Tuesday, even if that was in Spain. So it's not like a winter break would really help-us-out that much anyway, despite what you may initially think.
From it's first match in August when the title's blown wide-open, to the very-last game in May when it's all so tight at-the-top, the Premiership overall seems to never dissapoint. I believe this is partially down to the way it "flows" nicely with each-and-every team - no matter how great, or how small - giving it their-all week-in, week-out, right untill the very-last full-time whistle. The teams like Arsenal who are challenging for the title will play to their very-best in almost every-single game, and may even go unbeaten for long periods of time (as we've already seen this year). And then there are the teams at the bottom, like West Ham today. Sides filled with players of low-determination and work-rates with very-little hope left of their club surviving. But still... they'll give it all they've got, and fight for every-ball like there's no tommorrow!
But what would a 2-or-3 week break in the winter do to this?
It's called a 'break', and yes, that is what I believe it would do; "break"-up the consistency and exciting flow of everyone's favourite domestic competition, making teams from both the top and bottom ends of the table look completely different when the players return to first-team action after Christmas. Sure, they may feel refreshed, and they may have also had some fun in a friendly winter tournament with Brondby and a few others, but after having not played an Arsenal or a Chelsea for a while, part of their fighting spirit will have died. And you never know... Being the over-payed flops that many-a-footballer are today, some may even begin to decrease their work-rate and put in less-effort as the winter break becomes only a few-weeks-away.
And after thinking about all that over-and-over-again, I fail to see how the addittion of a mid-season winter break would really benefit the Premiership and English football as a whole, in the not-too-distant future.
The only real use I can see for it is to give manager time to shop-around for any bargain-buys when the Transfer Window re-opens briefly, just like they are able to do in the summer.
The Premiership is fine the way it is - there's nothing anyone can do to it to make it any better or easier. And why would we want things to be easier, anyway? After all, it's all that excitment and great football that makes the league so damn-exciting to watch, and well-worthy of its place above Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, and all the rest! By extending the length of the season we would only have to have teams cut from the league so it doesn't overflow into the summers' international tournaments. And with less teams, there'd be a lot-less action, drama, and nail-biting moments that would leave you on the edge of your seat like the Premiership we know and love today.
And anyway... It's fun to be able to laugh at those over-payed panzies as they freeze their nuts off in the ice and snow, while you're sat at home, melting by the radiator with a beer in one, remote in the other! :D
True. So why have the break now? When we can just win the treble again!
Yes, you see it the same way as I do.
But other European leagues have been used to this system for years now, so why should it really affect them in any way?
By introducing it to the Premiership it wouldn't only surprise us and probably shake things up - possibly quite badly.
So I still think it's a bad thing, even if it would give our players a bit of a break.
But even without a break, United have gone all the way before and gone on to win the treble while beating teams like Juventus and Bayern Munich who DO have a few weeks off in the Winter.
But other European leagues have been used to this system for years now, so why should it really affect them in any way?
By introducing it to the Premiership it wouldn't only surprise us and probably shake things up - possibly quite badly.
So I still think it's a bad thing, even if it would give our players a bit of a break.
But even without a break, United have gone all the way before and gone on to win the treble while beating teams like Juventus and Bayern Munich who DO have a few weeks off in the Winter.
Bit of a difficult subject this one, a break could take the momentum out of a football team or it could give them a breather for the new year. However we have a perfect example of Man Utd - 10 games unbeaten run, you try telling Alex Ferguson that we now have a couple of weeks break and start again. However, the games come thick and fast thereafter and it does take a toll on players and loss of form is probabaly predictable, especially if your involved in so many different competitions - I believe they have breaks in other countries and I have no knowledge of any major disruptions caused.
Exactly! Christmas time - and especially Boxing Day - wouldn't be as great without a live Premiership match to watch on SkySports! :D
But the point I was trying to make here is that a break could damage the Premiership and possibly even damage the rest of the season after Christmas, making it a very bad thing.
But the point I was trying to make here is that a break could damage the Premiership and possibly even damage the rest of the season after Christmas, making it a very bad thing.
Why does everyone think the break is the best idea?
I'd rather watch my team in and around christmas than eat cold turkey all day
I'd rather watch my team in and around christmas than eat cold turkey all day
What is it with you and "Hurru"?
I am. Hurru.
Nobody interested, or what??
As you may well be aware, it is at this time of year that a number of Europe's biggest leagues (including La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga) postpone the continuation of the current domestic season for a few weeks over Christmas as part of a Winter Break that allows all players to feel more relaxed and less-pressured during the the cold weather, which apparently helps them to feel refreshed and ready to give it their all when the season resumes a few weeks later.
England's Premiership and the lower divisions of the Football League are different to almost-all other top leagues in European football today, as they do not participate in such a break, meaning that your Man United's and Arsenal's can still be found playing regularly throughout the months of December and January, in both the league and FA Cup. Doesn't it seem strange to you that the Premiership - regarded as the greatest league in the world - doesn't follow on with the same rules of it's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed competitors??
England's biggest and brightest clubs may not take-part in any kind of mid-season break at the moment, but that doesn't mean to say that it hasn't been considered...
Only a few weeks ago there were reports floating-around claiming that the English FA may be considering plans to introduce a mid-winter break within the next few years. And even England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has backed the idea numorous times after experiencing it for himself in his days at Lazio, and more recently - prior-to this years' World Cup when he was surprised to see how tired his England squad was after another non-stop 38 league game+ had taken its toll.
Many people believe that the addittion of a mid-season break at winter time would benefit England's Premier League sides heavily - just like it has done for teams Deportivo and Valencia in Spain who've in the past come-back from a rest to go on to maintain their position ontop of the league and hold-off the favourites Barcelona and Real Madrid for one more year. Without a break half-way through they may not have been able to have sustained such consistency and good form.
The second-half of a season for the average top-of-the-league club can be something of a nightmare to many players and manager alike. Not only will they have to keep away from the teams below them in the league as the title race begins to really heat-up, but the FA Cup begins at the start of the year, Champions' League Group Phase 2 resumes soon-after, and then there's also the possibillity of playing at Wembley (well, the Millennium Stadium for now) in the League Cup final.
And with the possibillity of World Cup/European Championship Qualifiers in-between, with the final tournament to play in afterwards, every 2 years, you can see why managers like Mr.Eriksson are supporting the idea.
It does sound like it could really benefit the likes of Man United who have struggled to retain their titles in the past, but would it really be that great?
Surely there must be some bad-points somewhere....?
First of all, before anyone even considerd introducing such a system that has worked well in elsewhere in Europe, I think we should take a closer-look at what our top-division is all-about, and what it's really like.
Inititally, each team must play every-other team in the 20-team league twice a season in the Premiership alone. That totals-up to 38 league games. Many of which will be against the likes of United, Arsenal, and Liverpool, in games that can really require your Relegation candidates to work-hard for survival and all-3-points. And when you then add to that list the possibillity of another 10+ matches from the 2 domestic Cup competitions (without Replays), and at-least another 12 matches in Europe if your team is doing that well, then you really can see why a break is in-need.
But an English league season (for a Premiership side) only lasts around 9-10 months - between August of the first year, and May of the second. And from last-years' 2001/02 campaign alone you can see how it is hard-enough craming all those 50+ fixtures into just 10 months, without it over-running too-far into the World Cup warm-ups.
So it's bad enough now, without another 2 weeks-or-so stuffed in the middle somewhere that would increase the fixture-pile-up problem that has plagued managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arséne Wenger in the past.
Winter time is undoubtabley the coldest time of any year - obviously! It's also a time when even the heated pitches of Old Trafford, Anfield, and Newcatsle's St.James' Park can be frozen-over and turned into ice-skating rinks in only a matter of hours. If a pitch is frozen solid, then no football can be played on it - for obvious health and safety reasons. And when this happens, and a match is postponed or cancelled, that fixture is usually stuck-onto the end of the fixture list, giving teams at least one more match to cram in before the end of May. But by avoiding matches in the winter, there would be less games to get cancelled and postponed, meaning a smaller-chance of having fixtures pile-up at the seasons' end like they normally do.
However... we would only be able to avoid a 2-or-3 weeks of the cold, and the chances are the pitches could still freeze-over both before and after that. And with England being the rainy-old place that it is, it's also likely that a lot of games could be rained-off anyway - just like the Barcelona-Newcastle game on Tuesday, even if that was in Spain. So it's not like a winter break would really help-us-out that much anyway, despite what you may initially think.
From it's first match in August when the title's blown wide-open, to the very-last game in May when it's all so tight at-the-top, the Premiership overall seems to never dissapoint. I believe this is partially down to the way it "flows" nicely with each-and-every team - no matter how great, or how small - giving it their-all week-in, week-out, right untill the very-last full-time whistle. The teams like Arsenal who are challenging for the title will play to their very-best in almost every-single game, and may even go unbeaten for long periods of time (as we've already seen this year). And then there are the teams at the bottom, like West Ham today. Sides filled with players of low-determination and work-rates with very-little hope left of their club surviving. But still... they'll give it all they've got, and fight for every-ball like there's no tommorrow!
But what would a 2-or-3 week break in the winter do to this?
It's called a 'break', and yes, that is what I believe it would do; "break"-up the consistency and exciting flow of everyone's favourite domestic competition, making teams from both the top and bottom ends of the table look completely different when the players return to first-team action after Christmas. Sure, they may feel refreshed, and they may have also had some fun in a friendly winter tournament with Brondby and a few others, but after having not played an Arsenal or a Chelsea for a while, part of their fighting spirit will have died. And you never know... Being the over-payed flops that many-a-footballer are today, some may even begin to decrease their work-rate and put in less-effort as the winter break becomes only a few-weeks-away.
And after thinking about all that over-and-over-again, I fail to see how the addittion of a mid-season winter break would really benefit the Premiership and English football as a whole, in the not-too-distant future.
The only real use I can see for it is to give manager time to shop-around for any bargain-buys when the Transfer Window re-opens briefly, just like they are able to do in the summer.
The Premiership is fine the way it is - there's nothing anyone can do to it to make it any better or easier. And why would we want things to be easier, anyway? After all, it's all that excitment and great football that makes the league so damn-exciting to watch, and well-worthy of its place above Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, and all the rest! By extending the length of the season we would only have to have teams cut from the league so it doesn't overflow into the summers' international tournaments. And with less teams, there'd be a lot-less action, drama, and nail-biting moments that would leave you on the edge of your seat like the Premiership we know and love today.
And anyway... It's fun to be able to laugh at those over-payed panzies as they freeze their nuts off in the ice and snow, while you're sat at home, melting by the radiator with a beer in one, remote in the other! :D
England's Premiership and the lower divisions of the Football League are different to almost-all other top leagues in European football today, as they do not participate in such a break, meaning that your Man United's and Arsenal's can still be found playing regularly throughout the months of December and January, in both the league and FA Cup. Doesn't it seem strange to you that the Premiership - regarded as the greatest league in the world - doesn't follow on with the same rules of it's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed competitors??
England's biggest and brightest clubs may not take-part in any kind of mid-season break at the moment, but that doesn't mean to say that it hasn't been considered...
Only a few weeks ago there were reports floating-around claiming that the English FA may be considering plans to introduce a mid-winter break within the next few years. And even England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has backed the idea numorous times after experiencing it for himself in his days at Lazio, and more recently - prior-to this years' World Cup when he was surprised to see how tired his England squad was after another non-stop 38 league game+ had taken its toll.
Many people believe that the addittion of a mid-season break at winter time would benefit England's Premier League sides heavily - just like it has done for teams Deportivo and Valencia in Spain who've in the past come-back from a rest to go on to maintain their position ontop of the league and hold-off the favourites Barcelona and Real Madrid for one more year. Without a break half-way through they may not have been able to have sustained such consistency and good form.
The second-half of a season for the average top-of-the-league club can be something of a nightmare to many players and manager alike. Not only will they have to keep away from the teams below them in the league as the title race begins to really heat-up, but the FA Cup begins at the start of the year, Champions' League Group Phase 2 resumes soon-after, and then there's also the possibillity of playing at Wembley (well, the Millennium Stadium for now) in the League Cup final.
And with the possibillity of World Cup/European Championship Qualifiers in-between, with the final tournament to play in afterwards, every 2 years, you can see why managers like Mr.Eriksson are supporting the idea.
It does sound like it could really benefit the likes of Man United who have struggled to retain their titles in the past, but would it really be that great?
Surely there must be some bad-points somewhere....?
First of all, before anyone even considerd introducing such a system that has worked well in elsewhere in Europe, I think we should take a closer-look at what our top-division is all-about, and what it's really like.
Inititally, each team must play every-other team in the 20-team league twice a season in the Premiership alone. That totals-up to 38 league games. Many of which will be against the likes of United, Arsenal, and Liverpool, in games that can really require your Relegation candidates to work-hard for survival and all-3-points. And when you then add to that list the possibillity of another 10+ matches from the 2 domestic Cup competitions (without Replays), and at-least another 12 matches in Europe if your team is doing that well, then you really can see why a break is in-need.
But an English league season (for a Premiership side) only lasts around 9-10 months - between August of the first year, and May of the second. And from last-years' 2001/02 campaign alone you can see how it is hard-enough craming all those 50+ fixtures into just 10 months, without it over-running too-far into the World Cup warm-ups.
So it's bad enough now, without another 2 weeks-or-so stuffed in the middle somewhere that would increase the fixture-pile-up problem that has plagued managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Arséne Wenger in the past.
Winter time is undoubtabley the coldest time of any year - obviously! It's also a time when even the heated pitches of Old Trafford, Anfield, and Newcatsle's St.James' Park can be frozen-over and turned into ice-skating rinks in only a matter of hours. If a pitch is frozen solid, then no football can be played on it - for obvious health and safety reasons. And when this happens, and a match is postponed or cancelled, that fixture is usually stuck-onto the end of the fixture list, giving teams at least one more match to cram in before the end of May. But by avoiding matches in the winter, there would be less games to get cancelled and postponed, meaning a smaller-chance of having fixtures pile-up at the seasons' end like they normally do.
However... we would only be able to avoid a 2-or-3 weeks of the cold, and the chances are the pitches could still freeze-over both before and after that. And with England being the rainy-old place that it is, it's also likely that a lot of games could be rained-off anyway - just like the Barcelona-Newcastle game on Tuesday, even if that was in Spain. So it's not like a winter break would really help-us-out that much anyway, despite what you may initially think.
From it's first match in August when the title's blown wide-open, to the very-last game in May when it's all so tight at-the-top, the Premiership overall seems to never dissapoint. I believe this is partially down to the way it "flows" nicely with each-and-every team - no matter how great, or how small - giving it their-all week-in, week-out, right untill the very-last full-time whistle. The teams like Arsenal who are challenging for the title will play to their very-best in almost every-single game, and may even go unbeaten for long periods of time (as we've already seen this year). And then there are the teams at the bottom, like West Ham today. Sides filled with players of low-determination and work-rates with very-little hope left of their club surviving. But still... they'll give it all they've got, and fight for every-ball like there's no tommorrow!
But what would a 2-or-3 week break in the winter do to this?
It's called a 'break', and yes, that is what I believe it would do; "break"-up the consistency and exciting flow of everyone's favourite domestic competition, making teams from both the top and bottom ends of the table look completely different when the players return to first-team action after Christmas. Sure, they may feel refreshed, and they may have also had some fun in a friendly winter tournament with Brondby and a few others, but after having not played an Arsenal or a Chelsea for a while, part of their fighting spirit will have died. And you never know... Being the over-payed flops that many-a-footballer are today, some may even begin to decrease their work-rate and put in less-effort as the winter break becomes only a few-weeks-away.
And after thinking about all that over-and-over-again, I fail to see how the addittion of a mid-season winter break would really benefit the Premiership and English football as a whole, in the not-too-distant future.
The only real use I can see for it is to give manager time to shop-around for any bargain-buys when the Transfer Window re-opens briefly, just like they are able to do in the summer.
The Premiership is fine the way it is - there's nothing anyone can do to it to make it any better or easier. And why would we want things to be easier, anyway? After all, it's all that excitment and great football that makes the league so damn-exciting to watch, and well-worthy of its place above Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, and all the rest! By extending the length of the season we would only have to have teams cut from the league so it doesn't overflow into the summers' international tournaments. And with less teams, there'd be a lot-less action, drama, and nail-biting moments that would leave you on the edge of your seat like the Premiership we know and love today.
And anyway... It's fun to be able to laugh at those over-payed panzies as they freeze their nuts off in the ice and snow, while you're sat at home, melting by the radiator with a beer in one, remote in the other! :D