West Ham United: Gary Cotterill shares update on January plans live on Sky Sports
Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill has shared the “very welcome” news that West Ham are to grant their players some time off in January.
The Irons are set to play their fifth of 10 games in a little over a month against Freiburg in the Europa League on Thursday (14 December).
Following that gruelling run, United have an FA Cup third-round tie at home to Bristol City on 7 January, before a two-week gap between games.
Speaking from outside the Rush Green training base on Wednesday, Cotterill told Sky Sports News [13 December, 11:25am]: “West Ham have a busy run of fixtures coming up, but then they actually have a two-week break because of the way the fixtures fall.
“After their busy season so far, that will be very welcome.”
Hectic period
David Moyes this week took the brave choice to give every player a couple of days off on the back of the humiliating 5-0 loss to Fulham.
At a time when many would have demanded the players report for training first thing the following morning, they were instead given a lie-in.
However, it was a wise choice as, realistically speaking, there will not be another chance for a breather between now and Christmas.
That is not to mention the sickness bug that threatened to wipe out more players, although that has thankfully now cleared.
Every player will be accustomed to, or at least have been informed of, the hectic nature of English football in the final month of the year.
Thanks to the ‘winter break’ – if you can call it that – rolled out by the Premier League, there is at least a two-week hiatus coming up.
Every player must use that downtime wisely as it will then be all systems go once again between then and the end of the campaign.
In other West Ham news, Cotterill also provided an update on who will be available for United against Freiburg following the sickness bug scare.