Pushed to breaking point

What with the new season nearly upon us, it is perhaps time to reflect on things.

We all deserved a break from football. The new normal made the scheduling of the sport absurdly abnormal, so much so that we’ve just had the first pronounced break in play since March 2020 !

Of course, we miss the beautiful game when it is gone, but is that not part of the beauty? After all, hope springs eternal during those long summer weeks.

Despite suffering no consequences because it is simply too big to fail, the Premier League was and is damaged. Greed and gluttony continue to infiltrate our hobby as much as they do our governance, and the daily grind of the past three seasons has provided only a fraction of the escapism we expect from football.

Both fans and footballers are being pushed to breaking point, but sport always has its own saviour — the allure of competition.

Time to stop and take stock only builds the urge for the return of competition, and it is the competitive look of the upcoming campaign that has me more excited/hopeful/worried for football now than at any point in the last three years.

Let us hope that our beloved Irons , despite seemingly not learning any lessons from our last domestic campaign make a decent start to the season.