Wait until next year

It’s hard to believe that the new football season has already begun. With post-season internationals and pre-season friendlies it doesn’t feel like there’s been any real break from last season, even without an international tournament this year.

Plus, these are the ‘phoney war’ weeks, with transfers still taking place, teams still being tweaked and the real competitive end of the season still a long, long way off. With sunny skies and the cricket still in flow, there is a certain unreality about August fixtures. There needs to be at least a few games before we see just what the stories of the season might be, such as Hull’s amazing run early last season, that essentially kept them up.

Not that the Premier League has begun of course, but that’s not to say there wasn’t interesting events elsewhere.

I suppose the result of the weekend has to be Colchester’s 7-1 thrashing of Norwich at Carrow Road. Such a heavy home defeat for a newly regulated side, and supposed ‘big club’ of League One was quite the shock. How do you pick yourself up after such a dreadful result, one that saw Norwich fans leave before half-time, with a couple of them throwing their season tickets at manager Bryan Gunn (a little premature, chaps?). Also, how will Colchester build on this, and how annoyed are they that the focus has been on Norwich’s collapse, rather than Colchester’s performance? Probably not that annoyed, but still…

Also, the Sven Show began in style for Notts County with a 5-0 win. How long do we think that will last?

And finally, to put things in perspective, another football death. Espanyol’s captain, Daniel Jarque, died of a heart attack on Saturday, aged 26. A truly shocking and tragic death, but this sort of thing seems to be becoming more and more common. I wonder what research (or at least thought) is going into the possible reasons for this increase in young players dying, and what preventative measures can be put in place.