Despite the season turning into one of relative success and Latics finishing off with a run of form that would do for 80% of the division, I’m struggling to motivate myself to pull together a review of what hopefully will prove a real watershed for the club. In fact the whole nine months has been a real struggle, not so much because of goings on at the JJB but because of some strange mal-de-football that crept up on me over the summer.
I remember some time in the mid-90s, with the Premier League getting into full swing, sky starting to pick up on other country’s leagues and blanket coverage of the ’94 World Cup a fresh memory, my Dad telling me that he’d had enough, that there was too much football everywhere and that he’d become bored with the whole thing. I laughed at the idea then, and would probably have still done that until some time last September.
I’ve written in previous seasons about how the stop-start nature of the Premier League season is no good for fans, but when things kicked in this year it was hard to care and to some extent the breaks were preferable to what came between.
I don’t think there’s been a year since my teens where I’ve watched so little football. I’ve not been away all season and despite doing my duty with a season ticket, I’ve missed four or five games at home, most for good reasons but reasons that maybe would have felt harder to justify in previous years.
Away from Latics, it’s been hard to justify my Sky subscription. I’ve not watched a single La Liga game the number of games, not involving Latics, that I’ve sat and watched for the full ninety, can be counted on one hand. The FA cup has passed me by completely and the less said about internationals, the better.
Usually, I’d be cockahoop that it’s an even numbered year, it might not be the Word Cup, but the European Championships are usually enough to hold the attention and keep me going until the real stuff starts, but with no England and my current state of mind, I’m probably not going to bother.
The upshot is that I’m missing out on my usual end of season lull as I wonder how I’ll cope for the next three months, but, perhaps strangely, I’m still looking forward to August and what our thirtieth season as a League club might bring. Who knows, after a summer off, I might even be able to enjoy it, until then, there’s always the cricket.
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