Football is done and dusted and at this stage of the year I usually go into hibernation, get a bit depressed and start contemplating the meaning of my life.
But hey, it’s World Cup year and it kicks off in just over a week!
But you know what, I went through the group stage fixtures and to be honest, there ain’t that much to get the old pulse ticking.
Not sure what it is really, have I also fallen into the glamour football trap?
Will nothing else do except top-end games?
That’s coming from an ex-avid follower of amateur football in England (Hendon FC).
Have I succumbed to the very thing I hate the most football as a driven product to make profit?
Damn it, the realisation hurts.
I mean, in the old days, I’d be scrambling to watch every kick of the ball at the World Cup.
LEAVING ON A HIGH: Boss Zinedine Zidane quit Real. Photo: JUAN MEDINA/REUTERS
There was so much excitement, it dwarfed every event. The planet stopped as Ferenc Puskas, Johan Cruyff, Pele, Eusebio, Diego Maradona, Paul Gascoigne, Ronaldinho and the likes took to the field.
The football itself was different too, not today’s polished, calculated and fan-friendly version. It was blood, sweat and tears then.
I’m interested to see how the Russians handle it.
No doubt it will be super safe.
Tickets are changing hands from around R5 000 (group stage) to R60 000 for the final, which will eliminate the majority of “real” fans, it’ll be great for footie tourists oh s***, just felt a pint of sour bile rising from my stomach.
It’s highly unlikely that the tabloid narrative of mobs of trained Russian hooligans out to take English scalps will materialise.
But it’s not the most spontaneous or festive of places.
I remember one of the worst weeks in my life, I got stuck in Moscow for six days following Chelsea’s Champions League final loss to Manchester United in 2008.
There was a very subdued feeling around the capital leading up to the final.
You’d have expected 10s of 1 000s of pissed-up fans singing in bars and restaurants, but with the streets patrolled by machine gun-wielding police and dodgy Oligarch types with their minders drinking coffee and smoking cigars in pavement coffee shops.
The atmosphere was very un-football like, especially with two of England’s biggest travelling armies in town.
Hand in hand with Fifa, authorities will have participating cities locked down and you can be assured of a very well-run tournament.
Of course, the knockout rounds will pit all the favourites together and it’ll be game on and we’ll be glued to it.
As for now, Zinedine Zidane’s resignation has us in the grips of speculation.
Where did that suddenly come from?
I guess after hitting a third Champions League victory in a row, squad starting to age, he’s jumping ship on a high.
Before Mo Salah left the field, I thought Liverpool were the better side.
Could this be the end of Real’s dominance?
And where’s he going to go? Are the rumoured £1m-a-week offers from Qatar true? And who’ll go to the Bernabeu?
A managerial roundabout has just been kicked into motion and with seemingly unlimited investment, nothing can be written off.
Real President Florentino Perez generally gets what he wants.
Of course, journalists and bookies are lapping it up, making Mauricio Pochettino the current favourite with Arsene Wenger waiting in the wings!