Paddy and Robbo: Can this season be finished?
The question that is preoccupying the entire football community in England right now is when the national game might be able to restart.
Inevitably, that was the big topic for discussion during our latest MUTV Group Chat, where United legends Paddy Crerand and Bryan Robson joined presenter Stewart Gardner – and former Reds Wes Brown, David May, Ben Thornley and Danny Webber – for a catch-up on United and the lockdown situation.
And when asked by Wes what he thought might happen with the remainder of the season, 1968 European Cup-winner Crerand quickly began a fluctuating debate with former England captain Robson.
What's Paddy's lockdown essential?
ArticleThe club icon updated us on how he's faring in Friday's episode of MUTV Group Chat.
"I think Liverpool will go off their head, but I think it's going to get voided," remarked Paddy. "It's not going to continue. If there's any sense whatsoever, we're not going to see a football match for another year. How can you play football matches in an empty stadium? They can't.
“Can you imagine playing football and there's nobody in the ground? That's half the excitement of football – after the game you can go into a pub where fans are arguing about who's done this and who's done that and that's the whole part of football. It's without the fans or nothing. I can't see crowds attending any sports for at least a year.”
Robson admitted to sympathy for league leaders Liverpool, who are chasing a first top-flight title in 30 years, but the legendary midfielder also believes that United are set to lose out should the matches that are still scheduled fail to take place.
“If this season doesn't get finished, how disappointed are Liverpool going to be, after all these years of not winning the title?” said Robbo.
"It would be devastating for them, but it would be disappointing for us as well, because I thought we were looking pretty good and we could have challenged in the two cup competitions."
"We'd have finished in the top four, Bryan," replied Crerand. "But do you not think – and this is going to kill every United fan – that Liverpool should be awarded the title?"
At that point, the former United no.7 noted the complexities in awarding trophies and relegation places with games still left to play.
"You can't though, Pad, can you? Because if you award it to Liverpool – and they are going to win it if it does get finished – what happens at the other end of the table? Who goes down? You've got to finish those games. You can't just say 'the bottom three at this moment at time go down' because you've still got a lot of games to play and a lot of points to play for. So that's why they can't do that."
But the pair's main concern was, of course, about the human cost of the deadly pandemic, which is both the club and the public's sole concern at the present moment.
"Six hundred people died again yesterday," lamented Robson. "If 10 people die, you cannot be thinking about playing football at that time even, with people mingling together.
“And I don't see how behind closed doors works, because the players, the staff, the officials are all still having to congregate and get really close. How can players not tackle and so on? For me, until all the deaths finish, that's when we start again.”
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