Portsmouth’s Christian Burgess and Doncaster’s James Coppinger on what League One should do next

The players are two of the most considered voices in League One, the latter a veteran of 16 seasons at he Keepmoat Stadium, the former a holder of a first-class honours degree in history

The future of this League One season should soon be a little clearer – but finding a consensus over how the most troubled campaign in English football history finally limps to a close may take far longer.

Last week, Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony, released a statement making it clear that six clubs in a league that looked destined for a thrilling finish are still intent on completing their remaining fixtures.

Where that leaves the other 18 teams is anyone’s guess. It does after all, take two to tango.

Christian Burgess of Portsmouth and Doncaster’s James Coppinger are two of the most considered voices in League One, the latter a veteran of 16 seasons at he Keepmoat Stadium, the former a holder of a first-class honours degree in history.

Burgess’s dissertation was on the naval arms race between Britain and Germany before World War One. The city of Portsmouth was therefore an obvious choice to lay down roots while enjoying the roller-coaster of playing for a club that has experienced pretty much everything a football club can in the past 20 years.

Christian Burgess of Portsmouth (Getty)

Nothing, though, prepared him for this.

Both Burgess and Coppinger would, in ordinary circumstances, now be aware of their fate for the 2020/21 season. As it is, they, like the rest of us, are completely in the dark.

“There are so many different options (when it comes to finishing the league season) and my instinct says that the season has to be finished for the integrity of the Football League and because of the number of games we’ve played,” he says.

“We’ve only got nine games left in our league – we seem so close to finishing that it would be pretty hard to take if it was just voided.”

In the final year of his contract at Doncaster, Coppinger is facing the very real prospect of having played his final game for the club, without even knowing it at the time.

He admits that fear is the over-riding emotion facing players across the Football League, regardless of experience or age. The 39-year-old, though, has most sympathy for those at the start of their careers.

“It’s an uncertain time but there will be players out looking to kick start their career and move their careers forward,” he says. “There’s a lot of anxiety out there, a lot of frustration. No-one knows what’s going to happen.

“I remember leaving Newcastle around the time that ITV Digital collapsed and it was a similar sort of situation. You can’t compare the two but financially it was a time when no-one knew what was going to happen next. As a professional footballer, you didn’t know whether the money would be there for contracts.

“It’s a similar situation now. Clubs are going to be looking to tighten the purse strings and that’s going to have a massive impact on those players on the fringes of certain teams. I think there is going to be a huge shift, people are going to be looking very closely at how something like this can pose such an enormous threat to a football club’s survival.”

James Coppinger of Doncaster (Getty)

Coppinger is effusive in his praise of the way Doncaster have handled the current situation and the support the players have had from those who run the club.

He admits, though, that there is widespread 'panic' among footballers elsewhere.

Anyone who witnessed his composed performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup will appreciate that Burgess is the owner of a cool head. And he's calling for similarly measured thinking when it comes to working through the current fixture quagmire.

“First and foremost we need to make sure it’s safe for the players and staff,” he says.

“But there are certain things the league or the FA could introduce to impact next season in order for this season to be completed.

“Whether that’s removing one of the cup competitions to condense the season or playing teams only once next season. What we saw in the non-league steps of the pyramid – those leagues just being voided is shambolic.

“I know there are bigger things than football and if it comes to it and the season is voided, then you have to accept it. But I just think there are quite a few circumstances in which we can complete the season and then just draw a line under it.”

Talks on Friday over doing just that appeared to make progress but there is still a groundswell of opinion in the bottom two leagues that finishing the season, if you’ll forgive the oxymoron, remains a non-starter.

“The longer it goes on, the harder it is to see how it can finish,” says Coppinger. “It just gets more difficult in terms of fitness, in terms of finances and in terms of the virus itself and testing. I got to Covid-19 third there because the financial factor is so enormous - we're talking about clubs potentially going out of existence.

“I can’t see how clubs can fulfil fixtures without crowds, I just don’t see how they can do that. It’s almost impossible to ask football clubs to take certain measures that are going to cost certain sums of money without the help of the Government, the Premier League or the EFL. Without that influx of money, clubs can’t sustain that. I can’t see many clubs in League One or League Two voting to finish the season, although most would ideally love that to be the case.”

If the situation is bleak in League One and League Two then it’s even worse further down the pyramid, with Coppinger currently working hard to protect the future of his hometown club, Guisborough Town of Northern League Division One.

Despite his desire to stay at Doncaster, he has other irons in the fire if this season ends up being his last. At the age of 28, meanwhile, Burgess still has plenty of football left in him.

Whether either sees competitive action before the summer is out remains to be seen.