Summer is well and truly underway, yet nothing feels the same does it? No fans in stadiums, no European Championships and the Champions League has only just resumed… this is not football as we remember it!!

I’m sure the last few months has had us all searching for our football fix, and it got me thinking, what made me fall in love with the beautifull game. After all I’ve missed it like a hole in the head… which no amount of retro Championship Manager can fill! 

Ever fallen in love with…

We all find our own path to love, some grow up on the terraces, others join local youth teams or sometimes all it can take, is Gazza in a dentist chair and it’s love at first sight…

Growing up in the mid 90’s was a truly wonderful time for any aspiring football fanatic, from the explosive decline of the great Maradona, to the passion and heartache of Euro 96 and who could forget all the kits… the 90’s definitely gave us some fashion choices to make! 

It may have been love at first sight, as Gazza flicked the ball over a bemused Colin Hendry and fired home past the helpless Andy Goram. The celebration that followed will go down in English football folklore, as he laid down to let his teammates re-enact the infamous “Dentist chair” moment… we were all hooked!! 

It was really all about the joy, the passion and the tribalism that put me, and I’m sure others under a spell, a spell that came undone as soon as Mr Southgate took his penalty, at Wembley, against those ruddy Germans!! Now it felt like agony, heartache and tears, alot of tears…

These moments of elation and despair are etched into our memories, like scars they remind us of how we feel, win or lose, the emotions are so strong they stick with us forever, sometimes even defining us.

Development of the heart…

Once the pain starts to fade away we realise how quickly our emotions can change…the following week you win a game of youth football and all is (almost) forgotten. We can be so fickle at times… or maybe we just became good at hiding the pain. 

More often than not we play football from a young age, it could be jumpers for goalposts or a local youth league but it has one common denominator…. FUN!!

I myself re-call starting my fledgling (or not!) career for a local team run by the village priest…. It was great fun and even though they did look to develop our skills and techniques, the motto was to always enjoy your football.

After this early introduction to the game I was fortunate enough to experience life on the foothills of the French-Swiss Alps. My parents had decided to re-locate our family  and admittedly I was not keen for this transfer, I loved my football family, my teammates, the coaches and most of all the beautifull game itself.

We had come to Europe at a time when the European leagues were thriving. Marseille had not long won a Champions League, the World Cup was coming to France and Serie A in Italy was the top League on the continent, so as you can imagine my impressionable 8 year old brain was taking it all in.

The genius of Zidane throughout the ’98 World Cup was a joy to watch, David Suker and his Croatian side surprised us all and David Beckham…. well you know…

Fashion choices and life decisions…

I soon realised my love for the beautifull game didn’t just come from playing and watching it, but a love for all the colourful kits and exotic foreign players. 

At one point, I must have owned ten different jerseys, all sporting a different players’ name on the back… Shearer, Del Piero and Beckham to name but a few ! 

I remember the smell of freshly baked pizza drifting through the air and the clattering of horse shoes against ancient cobbled streets, we were in Florence, Tuscany, as I demanded a Del Piero shirt being sold by a street vendor… there was nothing official about it but I didn’t care!! He was my favourite player at the time! 

At such a young age all we want to do is embrace all the colourful aspects of the game, and who we support just doesn’t seem relevant, unless it is England of course, then we cower behind sofas praying to the football gods!!!

So when I was informed I had to chose it took me a while, I agonised over which team or player I liked best, I had family influences too… this was pressure for a kid!

Finally I had nailed it down to three teams, Liverpool, Man United and Portsmouth. (European sides didn’t come into the picture… this was English football only!)

I had seen my first game watching a Division one game between Pompey and Stoke, with Guy Whittingham scoring, as I stood on a milk crate down by the advertising hoarding. 

It was exhilarating and I am sure I remember an ambulance taking a player away after a bad tackle… so much to take in, and of course, as my local team they had always been a favourite.

Next on the list was Manchester United, now to those who know me this may seem odd…but give me a second to explain.

My grandfather was a huge influence on my early life (fry ups and cartoon network helped alot), so when he had brought me a Man United shirt from his most recent car boot outing, I was thrilled! Beckham 10 just looked so cool and it had those collars you could turn up … just like Eric Cantona…who didn’t want to be the king?? 

But my father had the biggest influence, I recall being shown a photo of Paul Ince as he had just signed for Liverpool and told my Dad I wanted that shirt and that Liverpool would be my team, our team…. to my uncles horror I had chosen papa’s reds over his beloved Portsmouth, a conversation I still remember to this day! 

The Beckham and Shearer jerseys would soon leave my wardrobe as I dedicated my life to the mighty reds…. I had to wait along time for that league title, but it was worth the wait! 

A look to the future…

We tend to attach lots of emotion to our memories and our football memories are no different. In these hard times our memories comfort us and help us to feel safe. We may not be able to enjoy football in the same way as we use to, and in truth will we ever? 

Exotic foreign players are the norm these days and being treated to Football Italia on a Sunday afternoon has been ruined by the over saturated TV market…nothing feels special or unique anymore. 

The footballing climate feels very sanitised at the moment (yes pun intended!), with no fans to make memories it all seems a little pointless. Liverpool waited thirty years for a league title and no one was there to see it! The “new normal” is a hard pill to swallow, as football fans it is our passion that makes the game so enjoyable and we must look to maintain that at all costs. 

They say love is blind, and at times we have allowed the business of football to outgrow the love of football, that is a tragedy.

I’m glad I have these memories to cherish, no matter what the future brings we at least have that.

Written by Andy Jones