Not so many years ago, professional footballers would finish a day's traing, spark up a cigarette and wander off to the pub for a sherbert or two.

So a Christmas and New Year fixture list held few fears as the game was played at a more sedate pace, well within the capabilities of the players of the day.

Nowadays, footballers are finely tuned athletes who strive to achieve peak performance levels mostly once, sometime twice a week.

Admittedly, sports scientists drill home how important it is to run of any accumulations of lactis and other acids that gather in the muscle cells to create stiffness.

However, it is just not possible to stay at peak levels to compete in the stupid list of fixtures that the Football League push out every year, trying to cram 46 games into approximately 38 weeks.

This season has been particulalry ridiculous. What with Christmas Day and Boxing Day falling of a Saturday and Sunday, and New Year's Day on a Saturday, the coutry's habit of making the next weekdays the Bank Holidays has, in effect resulted 6 holidays instead of three.

The usual weekend fixtures (apart from Christmas Day, which were played or postponed on Boxing Day) had to go ahead, along with the explitation of national Bank Holidays.

Which, at one stage, meant Championship clubs had to play four games within nine days. And we were lucky in that the game at Selhurst Park was postponed due to a nweather affected playing surface.

The usual tripe about the same thing applying to all clubs doesn't solve the problem. Would Norwich City players have been able to perform against QPR in the manner that they did if they were getting over the effects of games against Sheffield Utd and Crystal Palace just days earlier?

Mangers are starting to call for a winter break. That may not matter in placs like Scotland, where team play one another four times each season. Many Scottish supporters probably welcome the idea of a break.

Neither would it be unusual to have a complete rest if the country was so close to the Arctic Circle every pitch in the land is like frozen Tundra.

The answer in the English game must either be a reduction in teams in each division to the levels of the Premier League so that it is possible to play one game per week.

The alternative is to extend the season. That will not work, though. Players and their WAGS want holidays, as do managers, coaching staff and supporters, of course.

The problem isn't new. The Football League just doesn't seem to care what managers and players are saying. It doesn't care how far supporters must travel in cold, often icy road conditions.

It is about time they did sit up and take notice, before players decide to take it upon themselves to force the issue by going on strike. It might happen.

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