A return to football is less than two weeks away for Vito Mannone, the former keeper of the Arsenal and Sunderland who is currently on loan with Esbjerg fB from Championship club Reading.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been more than two months since the Super Liga was postponed but the green light has been given for it to restart on May 28, with all remaining fixtures to be played behind closed doors.
Mannone, actually on loan in Denmark, explores how to play football in the middle of the pandemic of coronavirus. The 32-year-old is not too happy with the fans not being able to watch the match live.
“We played one game without fans until we quit and it was really weird.” Mannone told Goal. “It is something that I do not like. Hopefully they can quickly develop a cure so we will see crowds back in the stadiums but being frank its awful without them.
“Fans are football. You are heading to the arena and you’re mostly performing for them. But without them, it was really uncomfortable and I don’t want to see myself playing like that in 2021 or 2022, so I have to admit that one game was terrible.”
While plans for a return to play are now well under way in Denmark, football in England is still edging slowly yet steadily towards a revival. Well, Mannone has a remark for England:
“We played like that [without fans] here in Denmark for one weekend and it was horrible-you’ll see when it happens in England. This doesn’t feel like football.”
