summer
without a
men’s
international
football
tournament should be a
chance to recharge the
batteries, put your feet
up and switch off from
the world of sport.
If you are lucky
enough to be, say, Harry
Kane, who has just had
his first full summer off
in five years, you will
naturally be fit, ready and
raring to go for the new
season. You will probably
even be looking forward
to it.
But for us poor
spectators, those of us
sucked in by everything
the sporting world
throws at us, there has
been no let-up.
I am not trying to claim
that lifting my phone to
order a takeaway while
simultaneously watching
the Tour de France,
Wimbledon, cricket and
netball World Cups and
the British Grand Prix
before I have bothered to
get properly dressed (this
may or may not have
happened) is more taxing
than the sort of summer
Kane is forced to endureLive sport
remains so
relentless,
and yet so
addictive
The Premier
League’s return
will offer yet
more TV gold
for us to get our
teeth into, writes
Alistair Tweedale
year on year, but I am
saying you can have too
much of a good thing.
The schedule these
days is relentless and, as
someone who finds it
impossible to ignore the
lure of live sport on the
telly, fatigue can kick in.
There were only six
days between the
Champions League final
and the start of the
Women’s World Cup. Just
17 days separated Ben
Stokes’s heroics in the
Cricket World Cup final
and the start of the Ashes- which has impacted on
an injury-ravaged and
ostensibly physically and
emotionally exhausted
England team. They are
tired and, in some sense,
so am I.
It is slightly odd to be
feeling this way in the
week that the Premier
League returns, but
maybe it is the overlap
between sports that
makes the calendar feel
so packed. Nor does it fill
this particular fan with a
thirst for more when
England are on the wrong
end of an Ashes spanking.
It really does feel like a
good time for a break.
There will, of course,
be no rest. The Premier
League will be back with
bells on this Friday night,
the Ashes will continue
next week with Australia
in the driving seat and
there will be golf, rugby,
athletics, tennis,
basketball, darts, Gaelic
football, tiddlywinks- you name it – on our
screens at every waking
(and sleeping) hour of the
day. We are well past the
point of oversaturation.
A colleague has spoken
to me about trading
sports off against one
another – fully
immersing yourself in
fewer to maintain full
interest in those rather
than spreading yourself
thinly.
Over the next month
or so, it would be lovely
to focus solely on
football’s Premier League
and Women’s Super
League, but then what
about the US Open,
England’s Rugby World
Cup warm-up games or
the Vuelta a Espana?
And that is the reason
we all keep coming back
for more. Every time you
try to have what someone
in their right mind might
call a normal weekend,
some sport you really
thought you could ignore
drags you back in.
It is the joy of being a
sports fan. Any particular
team can let you down
horribly. Any single
match can be a damp
squib or a waste of time.
But the possibility of
something special
happening is the most
exciting thing on the
planet.
That is why, come
this weekend, I will be
settling down on the sofa
for the Premier League’s
return, as ready and
raring to go as Harry
Kane.Back to work: Harry Kane
will return to league action
for Tottenham this weekGETTY IMAGESThe chance
of something
very special
happening
is the most
exciting thing
on the planet
Final whistle
A
20 *** Tuesday 6 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph