The Optimism of the Long-Suffering Fan
This is one of my favourite parts of the sporting year. The football season is just underway. At this point you can have wild dreams about how your team will do this season, even if that merely involves imagining avoiding relegation. Reality is very likely to hit home in all too short a time, but for a few short precious weeks there is possibility. Maybe a cup run, maybe a derby victory, maybe a high league placing, maybe promotion, maybe the end to a long downward spiral.
In reality, for the vast majority, it will be a season of struggles and disappointment. You lose to someone embarassing in the cup, get hammered by your most bitter rivals, slide towards relegation or mid-table obscurity or fail to score for 647 minutes. Most of us will get to the end of the season and think “if only…”.
For now though, we can be optimistic. We can hope for that day where our perseverance and faith pays off. We can hope that we’ll be able to look back and pick out a few highlights from the season. The late headed goal that saved a game. The feeling of elation when you realise that a game you didn’t dare to hope you could win is won. That’s why I love this time of year. You can dream that anything is possible. It probably won’t happen, but it just might.