Cod Almighty | Diary

All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move

10 June 2019

Trentside Diary writes: I don’t follow much international football, aside from the final stages of the World Cup and the Euros, probably because I can’t stand the near hysteria and bias of the commentators. This weekend the UEFA Nations League limped to a sorry end. It seemed like a good idea to give some meaning to run-of-the-mill friendlies but the fervour didn’t really make it to the end.

I wonder if all the national teams really want to be playing into June when it isn’t a proper tournament. The mainstream media would have gone mad if England had won, but at the beginning of next season there will be the usual moans about footballers playing too many matches.

And sadly, when England travel there frequently seems to be a significant minority who either go for trouble or get so drunk they end up causing trouble anyway. The idea of a trip to Portugal and taking in a couple of football matches sounds like a great idea – but then do you really want to be associated with this lot? They are just an embarrassment.

How does that relate to Town? Next time we’re moaning about being over-policed or the heavy-handedness of some forces at a match, this is the kind of behaviour that they believe reflects us all. We know it’s not the case but there are always a few idiots.

Talking of idiots, Town brought in a few fans to work on their kit launch the other day. I've no idea what they were doing – a photoshoot either wearing the kit or looking on adoringly, I imagine. The club allowed the fans who were involved to take some photos, and unfortunately someone chose to share a photo on social media, pre-empting the full launch of the kit this week.

A shame, and disappointing that on one of the very few occasions the club invite fans to be part of something, one person spoils it. Yes, it was a silly thing to do but the individual deleted pretty quickly it as far as I know. Most people didn’t actually see the photo.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect is that the club will be able to use this incident as evidence that fans shouldn’t be involved in future plans, but that’s not a huge step from where we are anyway. Some of the outrage was quite amusing but in the scale of world tragedies, it will be fairly close to the bottom of the list. On Saturday we’ll get a proper look and hopefully this will blow over. UTM!