I’ve been writing about football for eight years now, and have never during this time written in first person. It’s not about me and I don’t really intend this to be either, but this is a unique time to try something new as we enter a footballing void.
In the lack of games to cover I’ll try to continue my usual approach as best as possible and provide useful, thoughtful and relevant Manchester United updates every single day.
These are challenging times though, when the one thing we love has been taken away from us: Football. How do you cope with that?
I was really looking forward to Sunday’s game and yesterday felt more empty without it. Watching United has been enjoyable lately, not like it was earlier in the season. I enjoyed spending more family time over the weekend and in some ways you could relax a little more, but come 4pm on Sunday, it just felt odd. That’s when it hits you that we are living in an alternate reality. And it sucks.
Here’s three observations I made over the weekend:
- Everybody needs to be more considerate. If there’s one place to avoid if you can, its the supermarkets. There’s two ways it can go. It’ll either be a manic free for all, or you’ll get there and nothing will be on the shelves. It’s madness and I genuinely understand the panic, but people are being so selfish the way they are hoarding up, it helps nobody. Think about vulnerable people near you and ask them if they need help.
- There needs to be more openness from those in the football world diagnosed with coronavirus. Mikel Arteta, Calum Hudson-Odoi, etc. What exact symptoms are they suffering? Is this just like a routine cough and a cold, or is this more severe? As individuals they are obviously only telling us what they’ve been told to, very little, but we can all understand this threat a lot better with more facts to hand.
- Broadcasters between a rock and a hard place: There was some anger at BT and Sky refusing to compensate customers for a lack of games. I sympathise with subscribers, I am one myself, but the stations are not at fault here, nobody is. Their TV schedules will get better with more preparation for this void which landed on them this weekend, but if watching Premier League Years is your thing, then lap it up. There’s several United title victories to savour.
On the football
What would we have been talking about this morning if the game had gone ahead?
Another Mourinho meltdown? Would Solskjaer have patted him on the head again after doing the double over him?
Would Odion Ighalo have scored his first league goal and continued our fantastic run of form?
It felt very possible. This was the ideal time to play Spurs and a Bruno Fernandes inspired victory felt like a certainty. It feels like we have been robbed of an easy victory.
New routines
One of the big questions I have is what’s the appetite for football content today and this week, and next, and as this break goes on?
A lot of people are in completely new routines. Are people just switching off for three weeks? Or is everybody going to be lapping up every minor update, desperate for something to read and some information to fill the boredom if you are stuck at home?
No doubt there will be different approaches, but we enter this week with a degree of uncertainty about life as we know it, and it’s a little disconcerting.
We have thousands of readers around the globe. It’d be interesting to hear how readers in different countries are affected by the fallout from this pandemic. How has your life changed?
I’ve no idea if I’ll continue writing like this or just can it after day one, or a week, but I wanted to try something different.
Let us know how you are coping without football and your daily life experiences, and we can make this time go quickly and share it all as we go along.
No doubt you have some more interesting anecdotes. Or it can just be my ramblings.
Football will be back before we know it. Promise.
- How Noussair Mazraoui fared in Morocco’s 3-0 win over Canada
- Crysencio Summerville development shows he is the perfect antidote to Man Utd’s frustration so far this summer
- Man Utd are about to see £40m Aurelien Tchouameni alternative in perfect test at the World Cup
- Who is Ty Livesey? Man Utd looking to sign 125 goal contribution Blackburn whizkid
- Paul Scholes now singles out Marcus Rashford in key England quartet as new World Cup prediction is made
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
