The new football season.

 The new football season

And so the beginning of the new football season arrived rather like a late flowering show of hydrangea or oleander in a still blooming summer parade of flowers. For some of us it still feels as if we're half way through the cricket season and the local tennis courts are hugely populated by eager participants, swinging their rackets with a full repertoire of dramatic forehand winners and equally as suave and debonair cross court backhand returns as well. And of course we must never forget those delicate and lethal chip and charge volleys and half volleys at the net. But hold on, it is indeed the football season.

As usual, the third week of August is full of the joys of spring and still humming with transfer speculation with only a game gone of the Premier League season. Transfer rumours have now become an almost predictable yearly ritual. Barely have the last rivers of sweat poured from the foreheads of those obscenely wealthy footballers who ply their trade in the Premier League then it's time to meet up again at the Emirates, Etihad, the London Stadium, Old Trafford, Anfield, Stamford Bridge and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It used to be the case that the pre-season or close season used to be a familiar call to arms for most players who were preparing for another arduous season. It is the ultimate refresher course, a chance to embark on that gruelling schedule of exhausting cross country runs, vigorous sprints around endless traffic cones, endless squat thrusts, consistent leaping for headers, short bursts of lightning pace over yet more demanding obstacles and, finally, yet another repetitive sequence of jogging and running around a sun drenched training pitch.

During the summer, football was all about gymnastic flexibility, the incessant sharpening and honing of ball skills that might have been forgotten about, a singular dependence on cardio vascular work and much pumping of iron in the gym. There was little acquaintance with the ball as such because it was widely felt that by the time Saturday afternoons came around, players would be altogether hungrier for the ball and ready to use it effectively and skilfully.

This summer West Ham United, your boyhood, and now permanent weekend heroes, were based at a training camp in Florida along with several other Premier League clubs. You can hardly blame them, of course. There's the wall to wall sunshine, the opportunity to re-capture their childhood at Disneyland and, of course, catch a tantalising glimpse of those unmistakable, Presidential election candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Both are just an immense source of amusement and you can hardly keep a straight face.

Manchester United, in their infinite wisdom, have cornered the Far Eastern markets, making regular pilgrimages to Malaysia or Thailand to strengthen their commercial and merchandising networks. It is pre season at its most luxurious and exotic. Towards the end of the 1970s, West Bromwich Albion, under the flamboyant and always extrovert guidance of Ron Atkinson, once took the Baggies to a trip to China in the days before footballers were allowed anywhere near the Great Wall of China. But this time, it was all very different. Atkinson led the way in a flying visit to the Great Wall of China in a pre- season tour of the Far East. Albion's John Trewick even made the pertinent observation that once you'd seen one wall you'd seen them all. 

But it was back to Premier League business last weekend and all the inevitabilities and certainties of an opening weekend of the season were in place. The pitches, of course, are horticultural masterpieces, thick horizontal and vertical green lines mowed to tender perfection. The male fans will be bare chested and suitably equipped with non alcoholic plastic cups of lager. They'll have  programmes in their hands, terraces are flawlessly designed and there is a pure and pristine feel to the whole experience.

On the first weekend, Manchester City, now hoping to add a fifth consecutive Premier League title to their ever expanding collection of trophies, duly made their traditional, winning start to the season with a now regulation opening day of the season victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A 2-0 victory scarcely does them justice since we know everything there is to know about them. Pep Guardiola almost has the first edition of the book on how to simply click his fingers and just expect his City side to win.

Arsenal made a similarly professional start to their annual challenge to City's Premier League statesmanlike qualities. This is now Arsenal's third time of asking at the Premier League title and there is barely an inch between both Arsenal and Manchester City. Arsenal beat Wolves at the Emirates with another spellbinding goal from one of their own Bukayo Saka so it's all systems go.

Liverpool, of course, are seasoned thoroughbreds at the beginning of a Premier League season. Old First Division League Championships almost arrived by the conveyor belt for Liverpool throughout most of the 20th century. But it took a global virus to spark the team back into action and the sight of Jordan Henderson lifting the Premier League title over three years ago in front of yawning empty seats at Anfield almost left some of us lost for words.

But the Jurgen Klopp era, now celebrated as a golden age by the Kop, is so legendary that you could almost hear Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan purring their approval from another age. It could be said that new Liverpool boss Dutchman Arne Slot has an almost impossible act to follow but the chances are that Liverpool will undoubtedly be the classiest of contenders for another Premier League title. 

For Chelsea, of course, recent history does provide a certain amount of comfort and satisfaction but the departure of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich left the Stamford Bridge club with something of a hollow void. It may have not been the end of the world for Chelsea but, after two back to back Premier League titles and a side including the esteemed likes of Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Didier Deschamps, the present day Chelsea side now under Enzo Maresca may have to write some new and exciting chapters to the team's illustrious history.

The Premier League newcomers, for their part, are like old friends reunited, three teams who have experienced both the highs and lows, trials and tribulations, tears and tantrums, a common thread running through them like seaside rock. Football can never be sure of where it may be going at times but it can rely implicitly on those household names who remain its bedrock, the teams who cheerfully muddle through adversity, the sides who have been there before and know what to do.

Southampton are back among the sainted ones at the top table of the Premier League after relegation, while Leicester City have pursued an identical route. Ipswich Town are the good, old country boys who once won the old First Division championship with a man who would later win the World Cup with England. Sir Alf Ramsey may have been grossly misunderstood by those who didn't really know him but Ipswich regarded him as the most endearing uncle. 

So there it is Ladies and Gentlemen. The new football season has kicked off and it is hard to see beyond Manchester City retaining the Premier League title with an earth shatteringly astonishing fifth successive Premier League title. But football has yet to reach autumn, conkers are few and far between on the ground and the leaves are still a delightful shade of green rather than yellowing and then brown. It could be a long, hard winter for some and a leisurely breeze for others. If Arsenal can find another vital gear and probe City's weak spots and vulnerabilities, then anything may be possible. 

As long as nobody mentions VAR and holds up the game for any longer than need be, then the Premier League does have the potential to be one of the most entertaining, gripping and fascinating campaigns of recent times. Football can well cope without the necessity of another TV screen beside the pitch. Besides, an alternative perspective on the game simply complicates what should be the simplest of games.  Welcome back football. The domestic game may need a sharp injection of something if only to remedy the sore disappointment of England's Euro 2024 Final defeat to Spain. Bring it on.