What utter shite.

There's just no need for any mention of City

Of all the piss-poor pieces of bitter shit that have been written, this is perhaps the worst because it has no merit, no research, no idea. Just pure shit from a c**t.

Nasty bitter twat

Football returns: an unwanted blot on a magnificent summer of sport

What a joy it used to be to welcome the football season. The winter game would pack up at the beginning of May with the FA Cup final, and return at the end of August.

By Michael Henderson
Published: 9:46PM BST 04 Aug 2009

Everybody – players, supporters, reporters – would have three months to breathe deeply, get some air in their lungs, and prepare properly for what we scribes like to call 'the new term'.
Now the football season never ends. Even the summer has been appropriated by clubs big and small, as they hunt for new players, and trot around the globe trying to find new markets (even the language has changed) for their replica shirts.

This summer has belonged mainly to Manchester City, whose behaviour grows more eccentric by the day. The way things are going, when the Premier League season starts next week Garry Cook's blue and white army are going to make football history by taking the field with a goalkeeper and 10 strikers.
When the three lower divisions kick off this weekend, England's cricketers will be engaged in the fourth Test of a good series against Australia. A series against Australia used to be a summer in itself. But with kick-ball back everything else will be barged into touch, as the red-faced managers and their badge-kissing underlings hog our screens and fill our pages for the next 10 months.
It's not that football is a bad game. It's a marvellous game, and I am not alone in looking forward to watching Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and, yes, Burnley, in the coming months. It's just that we see too much of it, and too much of what we see is not very good, no matter what the pundits on the box may tell you.
When a game becomes omnipresent, as football has, it is impossible to enjoy it fully. Unless, that is, you are the sort of one-eyed fan who believes that football is the only thing in life that matters, in which case you may require the kind of treatment that does not come from the physio's 'magic sponge'.
Dave Whelan, the ever-quotable owner of Wigan Athletic, said something last year about England not being the same when there is no football to watch. Speak for yourself, matey. This summer has brought us a magnificent Wimbledon men's final, an Open that almost produced the sports story of all time, Andrew Flintoff lighting up Lord's and a terrific Tour de France.
In the manner of Jonathan Swift, I offer some modest proposals for the game's improvement. The season should start on the last Saturday of August, and end on the last Saturday in April, with the Cup final staged a week later. All games should kick off either at 3pm on Saturday or 7.30pm in midweek, and all players should wear shirts numbered one to 11.
Surely no proper fan, with the game in his or her blood, can possibly take issue with these sensible suggestions.
'Fifty People Who Fouled Up Football', by Michael Henderson, will be published by Constable Robinson on Oct 1.

I agree with him about defined seasons. Football is becoming an all year round sport which it was never meant to be. There was always a 2 week overlap in April and in September with cricket, but otherwise the break from football was total. They used to play 42 games in the league and the cup final was always the first saturday in may. 3pm kickoffs were standard on a Saturday and mid week games were always on Tuesday or Wednesday at 7.30pm. You knew where you were and could organise your life accordingly.
These days it is Saturday, Sunday and any night of the week at any hour. Any team these days who is not in Europe and gets knocked out of the Fa and League cups first match will only play 40 games.

It most likely won't be worse actually, the reason we played so many Sunday games last year was because of games midweek in Europe so it is more than likely that will be mainly playing on a Saturday

A third of the teams in the league will be playing in Europe.

Looks like he's just knocked some shite out to promote his book

I don't see a problem with it.
However, I still haven't forgiven the Telegraph for the article about the way they expected the City fans to behave at the Derby last year. I won't even enter the Fantasy Football League we're running at work through the Telegraph.