I hate this argument
It's not fit as in your or my levels of fitness, they'd run over us at 50%
It's how fit or fatigued they feel against their contempories
A fatiging professional at say 70% will not be at their best if an opponent is at 90%
We can say money this and money that but you could pay them a trillion quid a week or nothing and that fact still stands especially nowadays as the game is quicker and more reliant of fitness than ever before.
You make them sound like a bunch of OAP's. If a team has better players than their opponents, then it usually doesn't matter what their fitness levels are, as they'll still win. When we regularly won 3 and 4 trophies in a single season, we essentially got by on a squad of 15 players or so, with only one substitute per game available. Today, we regularly rotate players and for all this mass rotating and resting, the result of it all is 1 trophy in 10 years. So tell me which way is better now.
These guys are full time professional athletes. Their one job is to play football games and if that means playing 2-3 games a week, that's what it means. If they weren't playing, they'd be training. Like in any profession, they don't get paid to put their feet up.
We need to have the strongest line up on any given day to get the result we need. All players can get injured at any time, not because they played x amount of games beforehand, or they played a cup game in midweek. That's what it takes to be successful. The more successful you are, the more games you play. It's always been thus.
I know you reject this argument, but footballers really do have the life of reilly compared to those in other sports. The Tour De France is the most demanding endurance race in the world. Where hundreds of competitors are expected to put in 200 miles of intense physical effort every day for 3 weeks, in oppressive weather conditions, climbing some of the highest mountain ranges in Europe, flying down them at breakneck speeds, negotiating terrifying hairpin bends at speed, putting up with crowds literally screaming in their face, and after 5-6 hours slog in the saddle, risk serious injury in sprint finishes. And then do it all over again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and the next, and all just to win a yellow shirt. There's no such thing as stoppages and a 15 minute half time break. Most of them have no chance of winning the thing, some are amateurs, but it's no defence to say "I'm too tired today, I need a kip". That's just one event in one sport of course, I could mention many others. But fair play, they just get on with it without complaint, and if they can manage it, so can full time professional footballers at the peak of their profession.
..........
Meanwhile, as Rib continues to dig an ever bigger hole for himself, the bigger picture is we've zoomed all the way up from 6th a couple of weeks ago, to now comfortably in the top 4, 16 games unbeaten, with 16 league games to go. Over Christmas, we've taken 10 points from 12, we're in the knockouts of the European Cup, we have the signing of the summer banging goals in on tap, and we've just signed the league's most wanted defender. So we've had a very Happy Christmas, and we can look forward to a Happy New Year too.
