Goodbye, Doha, and hello, leagues.

You have to erase the joy and disappointment of a World Cup, Igor Stimac, India’s head coach and a former Croatia defender who played in the 1998 World Cup, said.
The Premier League returns to action on Monday. The Premier League had the most players involved in the 32-team World Cup, with 133. Fifty-four Premier League players advanced to the knockout stages, with 14 remaining in the World Cup’s final week. Ligue 1, which had 56 players in Doha, began on Wednesday, followed by La Liga, which had 83 representatives in the World Cup, the following day. After a winter break, the Bundesliga and Serie A will resume next year.
So, how did the leagues fare during the World Cup break? Arsenal led the Premier League at the break on November 13 with 37 points after 14 rounds. Manchester City trail by five points, with Newcastle in third place (30 points) having played one more game and Tottenham Hotspur in fourth place (29). Manchester United (26) and Liverpool (22) are also in contention for Champions League spots, with Chelsea looking to leapfrog their way into the top four from eighth place.
Paris St Germain, led by Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, is five points ahead of second-placed Lens after 15 rounds in Ligue 1. In Spain, Barcelona (37) leads Real Madrid (37) by two points after 14 games in La Liga.
The six-week break would have been used by new coaches Julen Lopetegui (Wolves), Nathan Jones (Southampton), and Gary O’Neill (Bournemouth) to settle in. Teams that were doing well wouldn’t want (a break), but teams that have been struggling with injuries or a lack of momentum wouldn’t mind one, Owen Coyle, a former coach with Bolton, Burnley, and Chennaiyin FC, told HT ahead of the season’s first-ever 2022-23 season.
Nayef Aguerd (West Ham), Richarlison (Spurs), Cheikhou Koyate (Forest), and Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal) will all be unavailable due to World Cup injuries. Erling Haaland, Jorginho, and Mohamed Salah would have used the break to recharge their batteries, while Emile Smith-Rowe would have used it to get in shape.
What about those who were present in Doha? They would have had 48 days to recover if this had happened in 1990 or 2002. If it had been 2010, or 2014, they would have had 34 days. It was 41 days in 2006. In 2018, there were 26 days. Eight days this time.
When asked if he would join Arsenal in Dubai, where they won a four-team Super Cup earlier this month, after Japan’s penalty shootout loss to Croatia, Takehiro Tomiyasu replied, I need time to forget about football. Most clubs have given their World Cup players a week to ten days off, but consider Emiliano Martinez and Lionel Messi, who played every minute of Argentina’s campaign (690), or Ivan Perisic (669 minutes) and Mateo Kovacic (635 minutes) wearing club jerseys soon after Christmas.
Football’s relentlessness leaves players with few options. We make players aware of the fact that after you are out of the World Cup, you have to return to the club and the league immediately. You have to be prepared for that, Erik ten Hag said on Manchester United TV.
I can’t compare with my time because we finished third and then I had a long summer holiday before regular pre-seasons, Stimac said after returning to Derby County following the 1998 finals, when the league began 34 days after the World Cup.
However, I don’t believe it will be difficult, he said over the phone from Split, Croatia. Most, if not all, of the World Cup players are accustomed to playing on Wednesdays and Sundays. With the technology and medical staff at top clubs, it would be simple to determine who is ready and who requires more time.
But would Martinez and Matty Cash find it easy to share the Aston Villa dressing room, as Yassine Bounou and Thomas Delaney did at Sevilla, and Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane, and Bruno Fernandes did at Manchester United? These teammates’ memories of the 29-day World Cup would be vastly different. Or Harry Maguire, who is fighting for a spot in Manchester United’s defense despite having played 429 minutes in the World Cup.
Then there’s Conor Coady, Conor Gallagher, and James Maddison, who haven’t played a minute in the World Cup, and Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips, who Pep Guardiola discovered to be overweight.
They are top professionals, I don’t think it will affect them much. There is no time to feel sorry for yourself in our industry. Because you have a game in three days, Stimac explained.