‘Self-indulgent tosh’ - Simon Jordan hits back at Virgil van Dijk for ‘fixture’ comments

TalkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan has hit back at Virgil van Dijk’s claims that players would play for less money to help manage the current fixture schedule.

Van Dijk, 32, is currently on international duty with the Netherlands and faces off against World Cup runners-up France Friday night before then taking on Greece on Monday.

Prior to the game with France, Van Dijk spoke out on the fixture schedules with another international break on the way next month and he believes it’s becoming unsustainable for players.

But Jordan hit back in response to the comments: “This is such self indulgent tosh.” Jordan claimed on X. “You want to take all of the upsides and none of the down.

“If the solution were for players to play less games and thus receive less...they wouldn’t accept it. Big squads, 5 subs, rotation available. Yet, still we have to listen to this.”

The original comments from Van Dijk read: “In England we believe the schedules are too busy.” Van Dijk claimed. “The players are getting paid well but it should never come at the cost of our health.

“We keep having to play more and more games. We as players should start saying something about it, contribute to a solution.”

Van Dijk is far from the first to speak out on such issues; Fifpro released the findings from their survey last year which asked 1,000 professional footballers about the current fixture scheduling, with around 40% claiming it has had an affect on their mental health.

Premier League managers Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag both spoke out on the issue last month, with the Manchester United manager claiming his players “can’t deal with the overload” of an “extending” calendar, while Guardiola was in favour of a longer summer break.

As it stands, Liverpool are set to play a game almost every three days following the current international break, with games across three competitions.

Luckily, he should earn rest thanks to the emergence of Jarrel Quansah, the 21-year-old centre-back who has enjoyed a few strong showings after being promoted to the first team for this season.

However, it is clear that the schedule is becoming more and more of an issue for players.