Would a winter break help the Premier League?

Over a year ago, England were extraordinarily knocked out of Euro 2016 at the hands of Iceland, and to highlight the sheer weight of the upset Iceland caused, over 10 percent of the Island’s population were present at the tournament.

The exit from the competition sparked a renewed debate about the way forward for English football with the introduction of a winter break long being recognised as a possible means of augmenting England's chances of success on the international stage.

But how big a difference does a winter break make, and should the Premier League follow the rest of Europe’s example?

Throughout the history of English football, there has always been a feeling that there must be a reason as to why England never seem to perform on the big stage.

At one point it was the Premier League’s fault, because of the influx of foreign player damaging young English player’s chances, another time the blame was put on poor grass roots level coaching and the list goes on.

However, there a danger that these apparent reasons for failure are overplayed, with European clubs like Barcelona only given 14 days off, relatively little compared to the Bundesliga’s 30.

It is also worth noting that the winter break may not actually turn out to be a full break period for teams even though it claims to be.

In recent seasons, elite clubs like Bayern Munich have used this window as an opportunity to take the team off to Qatar to participate in lucrative friendly games.

The break could just turn out to be a money generating opportunity instead of giving players rest, and it would be a massive surprise if England’s top clubs didn’t consider using this time for similar reasons.

Contrary to popular belief, the winter break isn’t reducing the overall number of fixtures, it only prospers in increasing the intensity of the stresses on players either side of such a break.

Other leagues such as, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga must make up this period by playing more fixtures after Christmas which you could argue has more of a negative effect when going into the national tournaments.

The appeal for a winter break has only enlarged in recent seasons because of the performances of English clubs in the Europa league and the Champions league.

If the frequent grind of the game is having a negative influence on Premier League players in the spring, where does that leave the national team come the summer and could fringe players be given more of chance to allow for more rotation?

There are plenty of experienced managers and players that are willing to argue in favour of there being a winter break, including former West Ham coach Slaven Bilic.

“My thoughts are very clear, there is no doubt that not having a break puts English clubs competing in Europe at a disadvantage and the same goes for the England team at the big tournaments.”

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has long been an advocate for a winter break, going all the way back to his times with Aberdeen.

Current United boss Jose Mourinho has previously spoken of foreign players being in "much better condition to compete" during the latter half of the season.

Brazil captain Thiago Silva spoke of the advantage the winter break gives them, and France legend Michel Platini famously said that English players were ‘lions in the winter and lambs in the summer’.

The winter break remains a palpable point of difference between the Premier League and every other major league in Europe.

It’s perhaps ironic that a league that prides itself on being the toughest in the world on both the physical and psychological levels now seeks a way to ease that stress.

It appears doubtful that a break could have a key influence on England’s chances at major tournaments, it’s too simple as an excuse to blame the failures of the national team on injuries or the effect it has on energy levels.

The winter break certainly affects the Three Lion’s overall chances, but a crucial part of triumph is to remove any excuses and simply go out and perform.