Bring in a winter break, axe the Carling Cup - and don't forget to visit the new South Africa

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Published 15:49 11/07/10

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It's time for a winter break and it's time to get rid of the Carling Cup.

Too many players who play in our league looked wrecked in the World cup and the tournament was worse of for it.

The common argument is that players earn large sums of money so let's not bleat about giving them a rest. But the human body and mind can only do so much before the sparkle fades and players,like Wayne Rooney and others turn in tired performances as we saw.

A month break, allied with finally ditching the Carling Cup, would at least be a start.

Let's take Everton as an example. They had an awful injury list in September of 13 players or so. A month to rejuvenate and get players mentally and physical rested would have helped them charge up the table even quicker than they did.

A winter break would also guarantee livelier performances in the second half of the season as players would be fresher, so you the paying fan would get value for money and entertainment rather than those six or seven games after Christmas where players always look tired.

A winter break would also save the punter a few quid at a time when many are saving for Christmas presents and the general festivities.

I could pretty much guarantee that among players now, there is a relectance to speak out on the subject because they would be seen to be whining.

Well all I'll say is that a winter break would guarantee better football, fitter squads,and more quality. Time again for change.

**

It's been a pleasure and a real honour to broadcast at a World Cup, especially as it's the first in Africa, with all of the significance that brings only 20 short years after the end of apartheid.

There's still a massive gap between poor black and wealthy whites but I did start to see people across the racial divide tell me with one voice that they felt that South Africa's change for the better came of age in this last month.

Infrastructure, like road, air and rail links, has become better for everyone and I'm pretty sure that as the tourist season of our winter is just a couple of months away, people who came for the football will return on holiday and pump even more cash into the country.

I've seen police be courteous and friendly, which was at odds with stories I'd heard. I've seen black and white South Africans wearing the yellow of Bafana Bafana. The Springbok shirt, once the symbol of white rule, is now eagerly sported by all.

My only hope is that the fences and walls which circle so much of this nation can start to come down and trust in one another can be built.

Here, blacks pile into crammed buses to work each day with not a white face to be seen. A coupled of people I know here told me to stear clear. I asked why? No one could really answer, so I took one myself.

Great footie banter about England and the World Cup ensued so I took a minibus virtually every day, and every day i found out a little more about working class blacks.

The moral is that most white South Africans wouldn't dream of getting on a bus because of simple fear - but fear of the unknown rather than of the smiling faces and real people that i encountered.

Let's hope that changes in my lifetime, otherwise the momentum of this wonderful month will be lost.

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