Is football worth the pain? Well of course it is. But even so, I'm just getting nicely relaxed into a decent summer and then the bloody football is back! Still, certainly beats tennis. And usual good luck in the FA Cup draw I see, our old boys up at Spenny, never mind, might catch them cold.
Personally I'm looking forward to the England v Scotland match, a giant fixture in world football what? I bet the talk is of little else in the bars and restaurants of Milan and Barcelona. How have the mighty fallen. How do you take a world class sporting fixture and turn it into a laughing stock? To be fair, I blame the Scots, all those deep fried Mars bars have somewhat weakened the national sporting prowess, and then, speaking of tennis, with typical Jock improvisation, they find a Wimbledon champion! One of the only two people in the entire country who plays tennis, and the other one is his brother, and he manages to be good, very good in fact. Takes some believing.
Anyway back to football. Yes, England v Scotland, and will young Master Rooney turn out? And if he does, will he want to play well, i.e. "Jose, come and get me, you know you want to"; or rubbish, i.e. "Moyes you can stick it up the proverbial, I'm done with this team"? Could have a knock on effect; some young lad from Motherwell gets to mark him, Rooney doesn't try a leg and next thing you know said boy from Motherwell is on 40 grand a week at Spurs. And before you laugh, just think about it.
More importantly, how are the daft lads from Ryhope (posh end), going to fare this time around? Well we look quite sharp when we've got it, or at least in friendlies and training we do, but will the Wests and Spennys of this world let us have it? We wait and see, got to be better this time round, surely? I know, don't call me Shirley. Mr Barton is back and full of promises, and the lad from Durham, young Winter, looks a canny turn, so we should get some goals, which to be fair was our biggest problem last time round. And lots of bright young lads full of running in midfield and the back; and Adsy as well of course. Will the good people of Ryhope turn up in their thousands to cheer us on, let us hope, let us hope. Onwards and upwards.
Next time, Paulo di Canio and what I learned from Neil Hixon, tune in....