With the outcome of the resumption, or not, of the Premier League still to be decided, shrewd punters are already looking at backing Liverpool to win the top-flight crown next season.
Jurgen Klopp’s men await a decision from football’s hierarchy as to their fate regards their pursuit of the title. Fans keen on a flutter are already going to Visit Betting Sites 24 to see all the odds on more success for the Reds. When football was suspended the Anfield giants sat top of the pile some 25 points ahead of second-placed Manchester City, who had a game in hand.
Whatever the decision on the remainder of the season, next term is still in the minds of supporters; it could be ruled null and void or there is said to be a contingency that will allow the remaining fixtures to be played at a clutch of venues in the Midlands but behind closed doors.
One potential blow for Klopp and the Kop cause in the new campaign is the suggestion that Mo Salah could be missing from the Liverpool team for up to four months next season after it was decided that it was in the interest of health and safety in the midst of the coronavirus crisis to postpone this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
It almost goes without saying that Salah, who has hit 16 goals in 26 Premier League games so far this campaign, is crucial to the Kop effort but he may be forced to turn out for his country, Egypt, instead of toiling on behalf of the Merseyside giants.
The games were set to take place between 24 July and 9 August this year and although they are now planned to take place in 2021, they may not be staged on corresponding dates. And it has been reported that the Olympics may happen in Spring rather than Summer which would come just after the Africa Cup of Nations, which — after a move to summer for the 2019 event — has switched to a winter format and is set to be played in Cameroon from 9 January until 6 February next year.
Klopp has made no secret of the fact that staging the African Cup of Nations in January could be a big blow for Liverpool’s hopes of maintaining their success. Speaking before the story emerged of the tournament being played in the middle of the domestic season, he said:
“I couldn’t respect the African Cup of Nations more than I do because I like the competition. But it is an obvious problem that you play a tournament in the middle of the season. The African Cup of Nations going back to January is, for us, a catastrophe. On top of that we have absolutely no power so if we did say, ‘We don’t let him go’, the player is suspended. How is that possible that the company who pays the player cannot decide that the player has to stay or not?”
