The football season is only four weeks old and already football supporters are scratching their heads over the madness our national game has served up this week. Manchester United’s demolition of Arsenal started the insanity. For those Gooners that shied away from the media and work colleagues this week, your North London rivals didn’t fare much better.
Tuesday’s pictures gave us an extraordinary exchange at the County Ground between Swindon Town manager Paolo di Canio and his striker Leon Clarke. Perhaps unremarkable that Clarke’s days at the County Ground are numbered following the incident, if it wasn’t for the fact that di Canio signed him only 11 days earlier.
All this was played out to the backdrop of the final days of this summer’s transfer window. Look beyond the undisclosed transfer fees and something in the order of £485m was spent by the 20 Premier League clubs. The amount of money spent did not amaze me, the revenue to be gained from playing Premier League or indeed Champions League football is a financial trophy in itself. What did amaze me were the transfer requests being submitted by players just hours before the deadline closed.
And so a dose or reality was needed as I set off to the game this afternoon with my 5-year-old son. “What game?” I hear you ask, “isn’t there an international break?” On the contrary, today was Non League Day, a superb initiative to raise the profile of our national game at grass-roots level, with supporters of Premiership and Championship clubs urged to support their local non-league club.
So my son and I ventured to the Camrose to watch Basingstoke Town play Dartford FC in the Conference South. What a contrast between this Saturday and the trip we made as part of QPR’s 2000-strong away following at Wigan last weekend.
Firstly, the club official at Basingstoke let my 5-year-old in for free, Wigan charged him £15. We enjoyed a 3pm kick-off on a Saturday, whereas Wigan changed the kick-off time to 12:30 in fear of their fans opting to watch last week’s rugby league Challenge Cup Final instead. We enjoyed a conversation with the Dartford fans, who kindly provided the lowdown on their players and expectations for the season; a pleasant change from the necessary segregation of fans at league games. And to round it off we saw a thoroughly entertaining game with Basingstoke securing a 3-2 win. Not to mention the 5 minute journey home, as opposed to last week’s 400 mile round trip.
I sincerely hope Non League Day was well supported throughout the country. Non league clubs are the bedrock of the national football pyramid, the clubs are an integral part of their community and supported by fans with a unique passion for the game. Basingstoke recorded their highest attendance of the season today with 493 people passing through the turnstiles. The question that remains is what will we do the next time there is an international break or Sky Sports have us playing at 4pm on a Sunday?
The answer: getting a dose of real football, away from the far-fetched madness that is the Premier League.
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