But let's be honest here. Am I the only one who hasn't missed football all that much?
It's got nothing to do with "not enjoying football as much" or anything like that (although January --> April of last year tested the level of happiness levels of even someone as ridiculously optimistic as myself) but it just seems like the season is still going on anyway. Alright, so it's nowhere near the same without live games to watch, or turning up 400 miles away after hours and hours of travelling to find hundreds of people wearing the same shirt as you. But it just seems that football hasn't stopped.
It's just short of two months since we lost at West Brom on the last day, and yet since then there's been practically non-stop football if you look for it. The Confederations Cup, The Intertoto Cup, The Toulon Tournament, World Cup Qualifiers in Africa, Asia and South America - indeed Mssrs. Cissé and Lua have been allowed longer holidays simply because they haven't stopped playing all summer. Everywhere you look there's been matches, transfer stories, scandal - if anything there's even more scandal because there's no actual games to talk about so the press have to dig up some rubbish to spread instead.
Maybe I'm just turning into a boring old git, but when I was younger and exciteable - oh alright last year - the gaps between seasons seemed like an eternity. The thought of the green grass of Fratton seemed miles away and going to pointless friendlies like Alavés with 3,300 other suckers seemed like a good idea just because it was FOOTBALL. Now it just seems like it's barely been away.
Like I've tried to say but haven't really explained very well at all, I don't think it's because I enjoy it less or because Portsmouth FC carry less interest for me these days. If anything, I'm really looking forward to the season ahead purely because no-one can guess how it's going to go. We could struggle really badly if our small squad is hit by injury, or with Perrin's man-management which he showed so well at Troyes we could be the surprise package - it really could go either way, and the season ahead is one where we really have to start thinking about mid-table if we can, to become a more established side in our third season.
But pre-season friendlies? Over-rated (he says with his Yeovil ticket for Saturday by his right hand). It's just odd how it barely seems like we've been away in the first place and within a month we'll be shooting into season 05/06.