Football Poets

Hide behind the sofa

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 So here we are
On the home straight,
Heading powerfully towards
The seasons end
Those contrasting fortunes
Light and dark shades
Down but not out
We can win this League
And survive by a point or two
Flying past the furlongs
To quote equine terminology
The final push
Towards the finishing post
Premier League, now
Nervy and nerve racking
Gripped by a neurosis
It can never explain
It’s jittery, gut wrenching
And that’s only
The relegation struggle
The scrap for survival
Transistor radios by the ready
On feverish terraces
On the last day of the season
Cold sweats washing across
Agitated faces, fans
Wracked and twisted with
Horror, terror
Oh stop the season
We want to get off this
Treadmill, our heads
Are spinning
Please can we have another
Season in the Premier League
No more Championship or
Heroes anymore
Yes we remember those lyrics
From the punk vernacular
Of the giddy heights of the
1970s, with a variation on
A theme
Leeds United inching towards
Premier League safety
At the Theatre of Dreams
United, now top of the bill
In contention for trips
Into Western and Eastern Europe
Manchester United, Europe bound
Next season, quite possibly
But last night, out of kilter
Almost drained by the
Stamina sapping trials and tribulations
Worn down by the tiring travails
Of one match after another
38 games of toil and drudgery
Saturday from early morning
To late night showings
At Sunday’s footballing Odeon
And almost incessantly
Through the weekend
All the way through to
Sunday tea time
By which time most of us
Have switched off, zoned out
A surfeit of football,
Football indulging in
Stomach churning and indigestible
Feasts, greed and gluttony
At every stage and narrative
Night and day
Football for breakfast, tea
And luncheon vouchers
Ah, how we remember those
Will Arsenal finally silence the
Snipers and cynics
Who think they’ll blow it again?
City breathing fire down
The Gunners necks
Once again
This is becoming too
Repetitive for words
An occupational hazard
Londoners though
Would love to see
Premier League trophies
In the ornamental cabinets
Of football’s finest furniture
Surely Arsenal will do it
This time and none other
Because this is their season
They won’t be thwarted
It has to be theirs
And then they become aware
Of World Cup idealists
And dreamers,
Summer is looking for
Its smartest clothes
Suits to fit,
Designer shirts
On patriotic parade
Thomas Tuchel’s England
Exhausted by the domestic
Hectic, frantic hurly burly
Fancied as one of the
Favourites, winners
Finally after 60 years
We’ve been singing that song
For as long as War and Peace
Decades of rejection and dejection
Quarter finals, semi finals
But never world champions
On the threshold of thrilling
And thunderous victory
England always seem to promise
And almost reach out for
The Jules Rimet trophy
But then we always fall short
Wobbling on the high wire
Before crashing down to earth
Oh how close we were
Don Revie, Ron Greenwood
Sir Bobby Robson, even
Glen Hoddle and then
The admirable, no holds barred
Era of Kevin Keegan
Who threw English inhibitions
Into the bin
And went for it
Carefree and
Daringly demonstrative
But then walked after
The Germans had closed
The old Wembley
Capello, Erikssen, Venables,
Whole hearted, sincere and trustworthy
Committed to the cause
So promotion and relegation
Issues still to be
Clarified, simplified
Followed by England and Scotland
During football’s
Summertime carnivals
Never forget our Scottish friends
In World Cup engagement parties
Fizzing and frothing beers
In English and Scottish beer gardens
Before exploding into
Ecstatic fountains of joy
And yet it’s been 60 years
Of woe, woebegone tears
Of frustration and if onlys
We can hear fate giggling
Behind England’s wounded warriors
Throughout the decadent decade
Of the 1970s, then the
Energetic 1980s, 1990s
England, World Champions
Though, it could be our year
In New York, New York
So good they named it twice
Uncle Sam’s happiest hosts
The Big Apple awaits
With commercial feeding frenzies
But first things first
Arsenal to win the Premier League
And City to snatch back
The FA Cup,
Champions League, PSG perhaps
Or even the Gunners
Our pulses are racing
The final chapters are
Underway
Winners and losers
It could go either way

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