Although the circumstances around this weekend’s fixture postponement aren’t happy ones, you’d like to think that some clubs, Newcastle amongst them, will be seeing the weekend off as a blessing in disguise.
With Eddie Howe still sweating on the fitness of Allan Saint-Maximin, Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson, a weekend without fixtures gives them all more time to get prepared for their return to the starting lineup without the possibility of the team dropping points due to their absence.
It will also give clubs who made late-window signings extra time to drill their gameplans into their new players, such as Alexander Isak in Newcastle’s case.
Was It Right To Postpone All Of The Weekend's Fixtures?
Yes. It's all about respect.
No, The world doesn't just stop
I’m sure that there are plenty of people who would have prefered the fixtures to go ahead with a minute’s silence or some other mark of respect observed prior to kick-off, especially those who have made travel arrangements: booked hotels and trains or maybe made plans to meet up with friends/relatives around the country to tie in with the fixtures.
And of course, there are those who just feel that with all the bad stuff going on right now, it’s nice to have football as a form of escapism.
There will also be people who agree with the decision and feel that, as a country, we should take time to stop and reflect.
But of course, you can please some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time and sometimes these decisions need to be made.
I see both sides of the argument, but I’m in the “let the matches go ahead” camp, purely because beyond Newcastle United, I don’t have a lot else going on in my life, so I’m being purely selfish in that regard. Although, having Bruno and Maxi back for the next game we play is definitely a bonus.