Tottenham Hotspur have signed a new football player!!! It’s true. In fact they’ve signed two!!! And everyone thought we were just ‘done’ with the transfer market forever. As long as Harry Kane breathes air there shall be NO MORE PLAYERS in our club. We had enough. Loads of ‘em. You only need 11, FFS, and we must have about 30. We also signed Leeds winger Jack Clarke but he’s staying there on loan for this season. Because we just don’t need him. We virtually ‘strolled’ into the champions league after a unique ‘no-one signed in twelve months’ period. So now we have 2 new players!! Holy moly, we might even WIN the Champions League!!! Now we have a new player. His name is Tanguy Ndombele and he’s a Frenchman (we’ll forgive him) playing for Lyon. As our most expensive player everrrrrr, our hopes and dreams rest upon his not insignificant shoulders. He is, hopefully, Paul Pogba without the attitude, the moods, the absences, the toys thrown from prams.

And Lyon. How significant. Because that’s where, last night, England Ladies bowed gracefully out of the World Cup, losing their semi-final to the USA. Who cheated their way to victory with the help of VAR, by hacking down our striker and then having the audacity to save possibly the worst penalty kick I’ve seen from a sighted person. My grandmother could have saved that.

I watched the game. Most of it. Ok, I’ll admit I fell asleep for part of it, installed (or fucking tried and failed!!) our new printer for other bits, but I watched a majority of the game.

Because I was exited by the prospect. But tragically disappointed by the reality. Women footballers do ‘the same job’ as their male counterparts. Like I do ‘the same job’ as Roger Federer when I play tennis. Or when he plays at optician. But I don’t expect the same salary as he gets (if fucking only!) because he plays it at a totally different level. And tragically, possibly temporarily, the women play football at a different level to the men. Maybe that’ll change with time. Maybe the player pool is too small to find 20 superstars. But that should increase now the World Cup has certainly raised the profile of the game. The Americans have a bigger population and their women have been playing football for decades. Or ‘sucker’ as they insist on calling it. So they are indeed better.

But as a definitive ‘premiership snob’ you get used to possibly the highest level of football there is and other matches (like the men’s internationals too, if I’m honest) tend to disappoint. The women’s game is technically very good but just really lacks ‘fizz’. It lacks the magic, the unpredictability, the moments of wonder and awe. I’m sorry, but that’s how I see it. But maybe, with time…

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx