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Potteries Football Blog

Month: January 2017

Mark Hughes comments on International Players in Club

Posted on January 28, 2017

Mark Hughes reveals that his players who have come from other countries are taken aback by the fact that they are supposed to be at the practice ground on 25th of December as well in England, a day when the entire world has a break from work.


There are actually no games scheduled on 25th of December in the English League calendar, but, a number of games happen to be scheduled the day after that which is called the Boxing Day. And it’s only normal that the players go through a full-fledged practice session a day prior to the game, be it any game. So, those teams which have to take part in the Boxing Day matches have to practice on Christmas.

While it’s not such a big deal anymore for those who have come through the ranks in UK and have followed the English system or even for those who have settled in England for some time, the new boys are finding it weird because they haven’t seen it happen at the places they belong to.

In the other countries, the season is separated into two halves by a break in between and that break comes at the time of the Christmas and New Year so that everyone can go home and can have fun, but, in England no such official break comes in the middle of the season. It’s only the international break that halts the season for a bit, but, there is nothing like a holiday break.

As per Hughes, even if the English administrators think of providing any kind of break to the teams ever, it won’t be at this stage of the season; that is towards the end of December. It will probably be in the second or third week of January so that these festive matches continue taking place.

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