FOOTBALL IS DIFFERENTLY WEIRD

I was always going to take a hiatus; I needed to. There were many things to sort out before coming back online. I knew I needed to take a break this year. What I didn’t know was that it would be this long. To whoever missed me in that period…I am sorry.

But this article is not about me or my hiatus. It’s about how everything is so weird…and so different. I watched Barcelona take Mallorca apart like La Liga never left and I was super pumped for all the goals. Here’s the thing; no crowd in the stadium but I heard crowd sounds in my head as each goal went in. LOL. Sounds crazy but that’s how much I missed the action.

On a much bigger front, football is so weird. The first goal of the sport, once live action returned, was to address racism again. Everyone’s taking a knee and I hope the events in the United States of America will help to drive the issue to a realistic resolution. We can’t keep having racism as an issue…in 2020. The world is so open now; people should be able to live and work anywhere they want, as long as they are not breaking the rules.

The transfer window is also weird. You have players whose contracts are expiring which means the clubs must hope that the season suffers no more delays in June. Once July shows up, those players are off and if the season is still on, some clubs are screwed. This scenario is more serious for clubs in the lower leagues where money is an issue and they depend on loan signings and players on short-term contracts. Even more puzzling is the fact that players can move this period. Timo Werner is likely to be announced as a Chelsea player soon and it has been reported that he won’t play for RB Leipzig anymore…and the season is still on! What a blow that is for the German side. What do they do now? Sue? I dunno. Moreover, there will be a lot of teams in the same position. How do they handle this? So weird.

This week, football fever has gone up a level. So much excitement for the ‘Return of Live Sport’. “Live football is back” everyone says, forgetting that the German Bundesliga has been back for weeks. I guess the triple combo of the Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, and the English Premier League is hugely welcome. We all miss the mass number of matches to watch on weekends. To think that we could be watching loads of games on a daily basis, between now and the end of the month, is surreal. How do we manage that? To be asking ourselves that is…weird.

What about the European Competitions? I’ve seen reports that, regarding the UEFA Champions’ League, matches at the Quarter-Final, Semi-Final, and Final stages will be played in just one city. It’s probably the same for the Europa League. Either way, it is more matches for us right? How do we manage that? I’m asking that question again. So weird.

Finally, this restart could be a fresh start. Pre-season for the next season is already done because clubs have been training for weeks before becoming competitive again. Clubs across the world would have taken a look at their operations and rejigged a few things. Transfers may not be as expensive but they might be more frequent. Players who had a chance of getting a new deal may not have that chance…but then clubs who will lose loads of players (especially those with loan signings) will need to recruit a lot as well. The movements will make for tiresome reading. So weird.

All will be different. Weird. But I guess 2020 has prepared us for it.

Later.

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