Three important truths about football which many people forget or deny:

1. The beauty of football is the UNPREDICTABILITY. The weaker team always has a chance to frustrate or beat the supposedly better team. If you take away Norwich 0 Burton 0 then you take away Man U 0 Norwich 2. You can’t have it both ways. God forbid we end up in a world where the stronger team always beats the weaker one.

2. Ultimately football is ALWAYS about disappointment. Every season ends up in disappointment for 90% of the teams. And for those who do actually win something or get promoted, well they normally get disappointed next season. Or the one after. In fact, one of the great ironies is, that the more successful you are, the more likely disappointment will be lurking around the corner, ready to slap you across the chops. IF YOU INCAPABLE OF DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT THEN YOU SHOULD PROBABLY FOLLOW ANOTHER SPORT THAT REQUIRES NO EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT. Like F1. Or golf. No team is EVER consistently successful in the long term. But, as the cliché goes, it is the lows that make the highs all the sweeter.

3. IT IS ONLY FOOTBALL. It is a game. It is 22 men chasing a ball around a field. It’s something to do on a Saturday afternoon. If your happiness, well-being and sense of identity are based on the success of something over which you have no control then you might want to engage in a serious period of self-reflection.

Posted By: Knitted Jesus, Sep 14, 08:46:48