I work almost every Saturday morning, so it isn't that often that I have the opportunity to actually sit in-front of the tv which happens to have the sports channel necessary to watch the Premiership. What seems to happen more often than not? Internationals. What a waste. As someone who has no loyalty to any European country, why do I care if England's playing Georgia. I don't care if it's Euro qualifying. Just have every team play every 4 years in some pan-European tournament or something like that - or play friendlies after the season has finished. Don't ruin my Premiership watching by scheduling friendlies or qualifiers during one of those precious weeks that I could actually watch that league. I'd rather watch Wigan & Hull. Why? Wigan is fun to watch and its match against Hull actually is meaningful.

I've never talked to anyone who actually enjoys friendlies. Before the recent regime in England, friendlies 'didn't matter' according to every Englishman who I mentioned another Eriksson draw or a US victory to. The thing is, they do matter. Robin van Persie's injury shows us this. I don't really think that Wenger has a great case, but I feel sorry for the guy. There is no justification for Italy & the Netherlands to play each other during the domestic season - especially when the game was as physical as it was. Neither coach will want to tip his hand before the real tournaments, so I doubt that there is much that can be gained by playing a match like this.

I was going to post something along these lines as soon as I realized it was internationals the last time, but I didn't have internet access. At least I could add in the vanPersie injury. I suppose the only thing that internationals are good for is that the teams without as much depth end up resting their internationals a little more and it gives a more favourable mid-week matchup to the lower-table teams than could otherwise be hoped.