Blues boss Paul Lambert has doubled down on his criticism of the EFL for a lack of leadership, branding the current indecision regarding the future of League One “an absolute disgrace”. The Town manager added that he doesn’t expect the campaign to resume and gives short shrift the extended play-off proposal.
Lambert hit out at the EFL in a 5 Live interview on Monday and has reiterated that condemnation for the way they have handled the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
"I think it's an absolute disgrace what's happening, with League One especially,” Lambert told the Daily Mail.
"It's terrible, it's so wrong that they haven't told us what is going on. There are so many unanswered questions and it seems there is so much passing the buck here and there.
"Will someone just make a decision? It's badly lacking leadership. They should be saying, ‘We can't make everyone happy, but here is the decision that we think is best for now’.
"You might not keep everyone happy but at least we can all get our head around it and make plans, be that playing the season now or ending it and not coming back until September or whenever.
"This in-fighting, what's happening here or there or who wants what, that's no good for me, it's not a nice situation.”
As revealed by TWTD at start of last month, most of Town’s staff are on furlough at present.
And as things stand, the players are due back at the club to train on or after May 25th but Lambert says that’s not particularly useful with no date for a resumption set.
"You can't take people off furlough if no one else in the division is going to do it and games aren't going to be played,” Lambert continued. "We can't have a training date if we don't have a start date.
"Football is one organisation - why are we not singing from the same hymn sheet? What's different? It's the same game, the same ball. It should be one organisation saying, ‘This is what we have to do’.
"Personally, I would love to finish, if it is safe to do so. We have five home games left and could finish well. But, looking at it, I don't see how that's going to happen now.”
As in his previous interview, Lambert says the Premier League should help clubs in the lower leagues.
"I'd like to see more financial help filtering down from the Premier League,” he said. "They've done that in Germany, eight million euros to help with testing.
"The Premier League is the richest league in the world. If you don't help these clubs down there, what's going to happen to them? These clubs are vital to the communities.
"If you're sitting up there at the top in the Premier League, why not give a little bit to help them through this? It's not right.”
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony has proposed extending the play-offs to eight teams, those placed from third to 10th, but Lambert isn’t a fan of the suggestion.
"The top 10 having a play-off idea, I don't know who is coming up with these,” he added. "They must lie at night and come up with another great idea and just put it out there. I mean, that one about turning your face away when you tackle, come on?
"What we need here is some clear thinking and decisive decision-making, and we need it now.”
Even if the 23 clubs agree to extend the play-offs, Town seem unlikely to be involved. Although they are currently 10th in the table, under a points per game or weighted points per game calculation - the methods of deciding positions the EFL is understood to favour - they would drop to 11th.
The EFL board meets on Wednesday with the clubs set to vote on proposals aimed at resolving the situation on Thursday or Friday.