It’s over. It’s finally over. Like Frodo at the end of The Lord of the Rings, my race is run. I’m not saying that finishing a dissertation is the equivalent of destroying the One Ring, but in my mind, the “coursework hand-in” office of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences bares a striking resemblance to Mordor. Anyway, that’s my life. It’s Thursday and I can finally taste freedom. It may have taken 18,000 words and 92 pages, but many months of work has reached its conclusion. Of course, that means football hasn’t been my number one priority – we’ve had 4 am ramblings about six-a-side matches after 16 hours of solid typing, and more recently, an exploration of the footballing haiku.
Now, with my new found free time, I aim to stay well and truly up to date with as much football as possible, especially now that Birmingham have remembered how to win. I’d like to put the Blues’ new winning formula down to my inspirational haiku (see my previous muse for more details), however perhaps Mr. Monk has just got the knack. Either way, I’m a happy boy.
However, following the optimism of my dissertation hand in, I have been brought swiftly back down to earth by an international break. Fresh from falling victim to the technicalities of fantasy football’s “free hit” chip, I now have to wait extra long before I can cheer myself up with a successful gameweek. Instead of celebration (following a hard few months of work), I’m just swapping one struggle for another. Give me another 3000 words over 180 minutes of England any day of the week.
Alas, I guess I’ll be watching the Holland and Italy games in some attempt to gear myself up for another World Cup full of disappointment and despair. Still, I’m sure it won’t be half as exciting as the next round of friendlies heading our way at the start of June, where we’ll begrudgingly watch England scrape their way to a couple of 1-0 wins against sides everyone in this country deems sub-standard opposition, but in reality will probably knock us out in the round of 32.
Oh, and we’ve got to do it without Harry Kane, arguably the only “world class” player in the squad. Mind you, he still hasn’t turned it on for his country yet – remember when he wouldn’t stop taking corners for absolutely no reason whatsoever? And then decided that every free-kick within 40 feet of the opposition goal had “Harry Kane knuckleball into the top corner” written all over it? Please, Harry, no more corners. Have a word, Gareth.