So, the fixtures for the new season have been released to a Sky Sports/tabloid press fanfare but excuse me if I cannot get too excited.
Yes, it is nice to know when you are playing who and where, but other than that what is there to get excited about? They are just fixtures, the same ones we have every season. Each team will play the others home and away and at the end of all someone will win the league, some will be promoted, while others will be relegated.
Okay, if your club have been promoted I sort of get it. Looking at the new fixtures will then have a hint of excitement about it. But does the order of those matches really matter? Of course as the season progresses it can do.
It would be an advantage, for example, to play Manchester United away the week they have several players out through injury, or suspension. But that is not known yet so how can you feel excited or disappointed? You will have to play them at some stage.
I have seen many comments on social network sites over the last 24 hours saying how excited people are to be playing Spurs away on Boxing Day or Derby County at home on February 15th. Would you not be as excited about playing those teams anyway?? And if not what difference does the date make?
The only dates that really matter are the first game and the last. The rest are simply a way of planning where you are likely to be over the nine months from August to May. A diary. Unless you happen to support a Premier League side of course, in which case most of your fixtures will be changed to a Sunday lunchtime or Monday night by Sky anyway.
That is why I find Sky's excitement a little strange. If they love the released fixtures so much why do they insist on changing them? And not for the benefit of the fans either.
Then they talk of Southampton facing a tough start to the season. Yes Sky, they will have to face some Premier League teams so of course it will be tough. They were, after all, in League One two years ago.
Having said that the promoted sides do usually start well. They have momentum and are not under as much pressure in August as they are in March when they could be fighting relegation.
So perhaps, just perhaps, playing Champions Manchester City away on the opening weekend may just prove to be a blessing in disguise. My guess is, however, that they will lose that particular fixture no matter when it is played.
And that is the point. The dates of the fixtures do not matter, it is the players who are playing in them that do. So I don't care who my team are playing on Boxing Day, or New Years Day, or October 17th. I just hope they win them all.
The season is over 38 or 46 matches, depending on which division you are in, and surely the only thing that matters is your team winning enough of them to finish as high in the table as they can?
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