Are you ready for this?

The new season, that is. Because I’m not. I can’t believe it starts a week on Saturday. Apart from anything else, I haven’t been on my summer hols yet. By the time I get back, the first team will already have played five games. (Well, four actually, assuming that Malky upholds the tradition of giving the reserves a run-out in the 1st Round of the League Cup.)

In my mind, the football season should start on the third Saturday in August. (Pauses to consult the bible, aka Trefor Jones’s Watford Season By Season.) Hah! In 1977, when I was 15 and GT was our new manager, the first league game was on Saturday August 20th. That sounds about right. In fact, in the early 80s the season started even later – it was August 29th in 1981, and I see nothing wrong with that.

I suppose the early start is something to do with all those blank international weekends – that, or the megalomania of football administrators, who are seemingly determined to trample over every other sport. Personally, I’d like to enjoy the drama of the Ashes a bit longer before I start having to worry about the exact composition of the Watford defence, or who’s going to score our goals this season. But maybe that’s just me.