Espirito Santo bemoans 'absurd' festive fixture list

London (AFP) – Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo has branded his side’s December schedule “absurd” and hit out at the decisions of the Football Association and Premier League.

The Molineux club are playing eight games this month, seven of them in the league, culminating in matches against Manchester City and Liverpool within 48 hours.

Wolves host champions City on the evening of December 27 before travelling to Anfield on December 29 for an afternoon kick-off.

Espirito Santo’s men have already played 27 games this season due to their progress in the Europa League.

“It’s crazy. This schedule doesn’t make sense,” he said. 

“In our case we are the team who has more competitions already and we are going to play with 45 hours between games. It’s absurd,” he added.

“Every time we have a meeting with the FA, we try to make them understand what it means to the players.

“It’s not human, the amount of games we have. If we increase that with international players it becomes really tough.”

The demands of television broadcasters have been blamed for the staggering of games around the festive period.

When the schedule was released, City also complained that the “sporting integrity” of the Premier League was being compromised by the scheduling — Wolves will have a day less than Liverpool to recover before the sides meet.

“We are a team who have had a lot of competitions and the gap between games is not being respectful,” added Espirito Santo.

Despite their fixture pile-up, Wolves are sixth in the table and have already secured their place in the last 32 of the Europa League.

The job done by Espirito Santo at Molineux has seen him linked with the vacant managerial job at Arsenal following Unai Emery’s sacking on Friday.

“I still have a contract, for me it’s more important that I focus on what I have to do today,” said Espirito Santo on the speculation.