Jurgen Klopp will be partly to blame if the Premier League does not get completed and Liverpool are 'handed' the title, according to an old Reds nemesis.
Former Wimbledon player and Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez does not believe the season will be fully completed and Liverpool's achievement even if they were to be awarded the title would be forever tarnished with an asterisk next to their name in the record books.
The latest meeting of Premier League clubs on Monday confirmed again the clubs' desire to complete the season, with suggestions matches may yet be played on club grounds rather than neutral venues.
But with some players such as Sergio Aguero and Danny Rose continuing to express concerns over restarting as early as potentially next month when the daily death tolls are still in the hundreds, Sanchez - who scored the winner for Wimbledon against Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final - told the Irish Independent he does not see how football will be able to start up again in June.
He said: "For me, the plans they are putting together will not become reality and the season will never be finished.
"Sergio Aguero came out and said he was worried about returning to football while we are still in the middle of this and he won't be alone.
"I don't think players will be put up with being quarantined and not allowed out of a team hotel for two months and if they go home after training, maybe living with older people, and that means a lot of players will opt out of playing.
"That means playing weakened teams, in empty stadiums and all teams playing at neutral grounds. Do we really want to watch that?
"Then what happens when it turns out that a player or a manager or even a physio has contracted the virus? Does the whole team need to be quarantined for two weeks and all their matches put back? I can't see it and that's why I think the plans they are putting together will never happen.
"While it would be nice to see promotion and relegation sorted before we have a break and hope that the virus is controlled or neutralised by a vaccine, but all of that looks like a long shot right now."
Sanchez, who took third-tier Wycombe Wanderers to the FA Cup semi finals in 2001 where they lost to Liverpool at Villa Park, also believes the winter break which was introduced this season - that Jurgen Klopp was a high-profile advocate of - cost the Reds the chance to tie the title up before football was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think you can declare Liverpool as champions, but you would have to have them as champions with an asterisk forever", he said.
"It is ironic that Klopp was the manager pushing more than anyone else for a winter break and since they had that interruption in the season, Liverpool lost all their momentum and the dip in form and the time taken out of the season means they could have won the league by now if they didn't have that break.
"If the league is not completed, I don't think anyone would object to them being champions as they are so far ahead at the top, but there will always be that mark against them because they never quite got over the finishing line."
shufflebeng85
0
29-games champion
U don't have a suicide to plan why trolling us think about the middle east first
olwafestuz
0
The team is champion because they furlough their staffs and death threat their player, they don't care about others. You'll never walk alone
you are a problem to human world
kingkj
1
it's true maybe they will stay many years WITH Liverpool salah firmino mane
domlmpst
1
If the league can't continue automatically LIVERPOOL are the champions no asterisk because whether they are in form or not there's no way they will not win atleast two games from 9,so SANCHEZ keep your opinion to yourself #YNWA, Liverpool now and always#COMEONREDS#!!!!
Beebemopyz
0
I for one do not like that type of victory. why can't EPL program the matches for July. we will be champions still and without the so call asterisk.
yekbmopsuy
1
I don't see any problem handing a trophy to a top team given they are there on merit.
ovolexis
0
The team is champion because they furlough their staffs and death threat their player, they don't care about others. You'll never walk alone
you must have liverpool so much for you to have so many comments under this article. you must have lost your life savings to a liverpool match in the past, ain't it? mr cmon-covid
ovolexis
0
29-games champion
use it to butter your bread for breakfast
ovolexis
2
which asterik? this dude is droping rubbish talk. maybe he is the one who will go and put the asterik there
Cmon_CTID
1
Wenger said even if the season is cancelled, What everyone knows is that Liverpool is a champion.. On other side if the season is voided, What we know is that Liverpool is already EPL champion and will also be marked in the records
remark as 29 games champion because of COVID19
vawadlmr
0
Wenger said even if the season is cancelled, What everyone knows is that Liverpool is a champion.. On other side if the season is voided, What we know is that Liverpool is already EPL champion and will also be marked in the records
Cmon_CTID
2
29-games champion
Poolsince1989
1
Fool, even Liverpool win all the matches we still at 87 pts and need 1 more games to confirm as champion... What sort of blame for winter break to be blamed??????
Cmon_CTID
2
Please give the champion to them. They can do anything.
Cmon_CTID
1
The team is champion because they furlough their staffs and death threat their player, they don't care about others. You'll never walk alone
lubaeltuz
1
who cares? a Champions is a Champions