By all sensible logic this season should be somewhere near the bottom of my “things I am actively looking forward to” list. Look at the facts – the 2009/10 season ended in misery, the World Cup ended in…well, actually, I quite enjoyed it. But you catch my drift.

Swindon getting to Wembley should have been a fantastic experience regardless of the result. In fact I was reminded by Gripweed minutes before kick off of my previous claim that I would be delighted just to get to the playoff final, and a win would be a bonus. That’s not really how it works though, is it?

The thing is, the game was rubbish. There’s a far better blog on the subject here. But what bothered me most wasn’t the game, it was the day as a whole. Previous visits to Wembley have been exciting, sunny days with a great atmosphere. This was a miserable rainy day, infested with Millwall fans and the desire to get as far away from the stadium as humanly possible, as soon as I could. I honestly couldn’t work out how we’d get out in one piece if we won. We saw no trouble, but rightly or wrongly it felt that it wouldn’t take much encouragement to get it. Winning, for example. That killed the day for me, it isn’t how I want to watch my football.

So to sum the day up, I had a lovely time up until we left Enfield at lunchtime (smashing sandwich in the pub) and after we got back to Enfield (smashing chilli in the pub). Shame about the bit in the middle.

However, the whole experience seems to have had an odd effect on me. Last season I only managed 3 or 4 games. This season I’m doing 10. I can’t wait – I’m even thinking of buying a top for the first time in ages. I guess the effect of that Millwall game was a bit like having a rotten cold. Only then do you remember how nice it is not having a throat like sandpaper.

Less threatening. More eyeliner.

Farewell then Wembley, for now. Fortunately my memories of the place haven’t been left tarnished, but in truth it was Green Day a couple of weeks later which saw to that.*

Roll on automatic promotion.

*Yes yes, I know that going to gigs there probably caused the bobble that caused Austin to miss…

Kids, eh!

The new Premier League season is less than three weeks away and things have been notably quiet on the transfer front. The World Cup can be blamed for clubs and players having their minds elsewhere, but at the same time there’s no doubt that it’s also the biggest cattle market in the game. Joe Cole’s move from Chelsea to Liverpool has probably been the biggest talking point, along with Man City’s captures of Yaya Toure and David Silva. Are things likely to liven up in the coming days, or is this a sign of the new austerity that is gripping the country’s clubs (Man City aside!)?

Of course, while the above may be true, it’s not stopped the usual rampant speculation in the press and online. Today alone we are told that Spurs want Scott Parker but West Ham have scuppered that by valuing the journeyman at £15m, SWP is being offered to Villa as a makeweight for Jimmy Milner and Rafa Benitez is going to relieve Roy Hodgeson of Javier Mascherano in exchange for £25m. So signs that there’s still plenty to come.

Naturally tPs would love to hear about any transfer gossip you know about, the more outlandish the better! Feel free to comment to this post or visit the new forum for a chat.