Pre-season kicks off for me this weekend down in Sussex and a few miles away at East Preston FC. They actually were one of the first clubs to take on my programme writing service which could be as many as seven clubs by the time the season kicks off.
There is room for more in that service too, so not too late if your club wants to get involved and find out what it’s all about. Not many teams have returned to action over this midweek, there are around three weeks until Steps 5 and 6 begin their league campaigns.
Some will see competitive action as the calendar turns to August and the beginning of the FA Cup over the first weekend, the remainder still waiting to kick off midway through the month.
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It’s a slightly strange time of the year, almost like a check list ready for the big kick off whether you are a club, player, staff, or supporter. Season tickets on sale or bought? Pitch repaired and ready? Facilities spruced up?
Players signed? Refreshments areas fully stocked? Cup draws received? League fixtures ready? Games ready to watch? There are so many questions, so many parts to a pre-season that you can tick off and brings you ever closer to the real stuff getting underway.
I went through a spell years ago of not attending pre-season games, I’ve always appreciated they are there for managers to get formations and ideas right before the big kick off and for players to get themselves towards match fitness.
For some reason they just lost any kind of edge for me and I went a good few years not being bothered by them. I can’t put a finger on when exactly I decided going again was a good idea, maybe it was the lure of watching football in the summer sun, who knows!
I still don’t religiously go nuts and find a game for every Tuesday or Saturday, and generally once the season begins for one level, friendlies are usually off the table!
However, it is a good time to find your way to grounds that have undergone some improvement over the summer and also to get around to catch up and see the good people of non-league football that make it tick over in all capacities.
It is a chance in a lot of cases for a first look or two at any new signings although granted it is a snapshot sometimes 60 minutes or so. The one thing that is really lacking is Premier League clubs visiting their non-league counterparts to bring in some much needed early revenue into the coffers.
Sending an Under 21 or Under 23 side doesn’t have the same impact or effect, it’s not as if they’ll contain a sprinkling of first team squad players either, but find the furthest destination in the world and you won’t find the plane waiting to take off.
Of course this isn’t the fault of the players, just their clubs directing and shouting ‘jump’ whilst the players say, ‘how high’. But nowadays we make do, let them slink off to their own bubbles and we’ll keep up the reality of football still being affordable and a game for the inclusive, not the exclusive.
