Can we have our football season back now please?

The golden days of Autumn are upon us, the first frosts leaving a kiss of silver on our parks and gardens; the chilled Chablis gives way to a robust Argentinean Malbec and cardigans begin to look attractive, once again.

There is something magical about the Fall as nature pulls its sap down to its roots and waits to the hear spring’s siren call in a few months time.

The hazy hot days of August seem a long time ago now; a distant memory; a dream perhaps. It certainly seems a hell of a long time since the new football season started during those hazy summer days; two months in fact and yet we have still only played seven Premier League games. Just seven in eight weeks. It really doesn’t feel like the 2010/2011 season has even started, does it? It’s been so interrupted.

This is a shame because it is the daily, weekly, monthly rhythm of football that provides so much enjoyment. It gives structure and momentum to our lives as match after match changes each season’s plot lines and unfolds twists and turns. But now, with the Euro 2012 qualifiers out of the way until the mad March hare begins to box, we can pull up a chair, warm our feet by the fire of an uninterrupted league programme.

Add in the Champions League, Europa League as well as the League Cup and we’ve got a thick, rich and tasty run up to the New Year ahead of us; a heads down no-nonsense plunge into a deep ocean of football.

At last things will really start to take shape. The last two months have been a phoney war but not the heat of the proper battle will begin to warm us all.
In some senses, this is most exciting and glorious time of the season. We have so much to look forward to and everything is still up for grabs. We’re still hungry for the game and have yet to suffer from the slightly over-stuffed feeling we’ll have in four or five months time.

How will City’s bid of the title go? Will the real Wayne Rooney be returned to earth and play football again? How will Spurs so against Inter? How many more Arsenal players will be out injured for a couple of months? Will Ian Holloway’s head burst? How long before Allardyce proclaims himself to be the one and only God and demands we worship him? So many stories to unfold and its all about to happen.

Worth pausing before this weekends fixtures kick off and give thanks; football is back…..and we bloody love it.

Editor’s Note: Johnny’s new book: “We Ate All The Pies: How Football Swallowed Britain Whole” has received the massive honour of being listed as one of William Hill’s Sports Book Of The Year 2010 – the biggest, most prestigious sports books prize in UK.

Buy it here via Amazon US or Amazon UK.