And so I think to myself, how fit am I, really? If I was to take up the same ethic of exercise and get myself into shape for the new season, perhaps I could be on par with some of the big names we see every week! If even one of these players has lapsed over the course of their holiday, gone on a vacation of such monumental self indulgence that you could look at the man and think, "good lord, it's Paul Robinson's older, fatter brother" then surely I, a person of relative youth, could easily work to attain the same level of fitness that this player (lets call him, Paul X) will reach by the start of the new campaign. Right? RIGHT?! Surely, the chance still remains that a manager, ever desperate to build numbers in a squad run on a shoe string budget, will glance into the stands, see a young fan, kitted and ready for action and think "HIM! He is the answer to my prayers, get that lad signed up"...
Thinking about this question was a real wake up call, and it brought sharply into focus the ever diminishing possibility that I will some day become a professional football player. At the tender age of nineteen, the illusion is shattered. With the likes of Josh McEachran and Jack Wilshere already lighting up the premier league, I may as well hang up my boots, oh how I resent them! Them, and their superior footballing skills and fitness... it could have been me.
One player that I will be looking forward to watching next season however is Bolton's own Danny Ward, looking to do what I never could, and break into the first team at the age of just nineteen. Coyle will be using the pre-season tour of America to assess if he is ready to make the leap or whether another loan spell would be beneficial to help hone his skills.
And this brings us neatly into the section of my rant regarding the new look squad for next season. I've been putting off writing about the here-say and speculation over the last month or so, partly because I had other things to do and partly because it's hard to write about something that's being covered from every possible media angle and that is (in-fact) spectacularly misleading or simply untrue. But one thing we can rest assured on is that Darren Pratley is now a Wanderer, and my warmest welcome is extended to him. We'd been linked with him for a while and so, like any semi-reliable football blogger, I had been keeping an open eye on his performances with Swansea during the play-offs. I reckon it looks as though we've gone and gotten ourselves quite a player in the form of the twenty six year old midfielder. I'm sure any old clown with an internet connection has seen his impressive strike against Forest from inside his own half by now, but bare in mind that when Taylor arrived at the club we all expected to be treated to the kind of mouth watering long range efforts that he'd made his own whilst playing for Portsmouth, and we've yet really to see that magic left foot fly. The one thing I think we can expect from Pratley is a player who fits into a hole not unlike the one left by the departure of Kevin Nolan all those years ago, an incendiary bomb of energy just looking for a place to go off.
So, with my dream of being plucked from the Wednesday 6-a-side Manchester leagues, laying, in no uncertain terms, tattered on the floor, I will look hopefully on to the new season. Taking a leaf out of Kev's book I too am placing faith in our brave and fearless leader to bring about the changes and put together a team over the coming months that can really shake things up in the premier league once again... And at any rate, Andre Villas-Boas was the ripe old age of twenty one by the time he was coaching the British Virgin Isles, so time is on my side once again.
