Football has changed and so have I, but a new season still gives me reason to hope | Max Rushden

Despite all its depressing ills, this silly game can still help you forget all your banal worries – even if it’s only for a few seconds

And so we put ourselves through this all again. Where exactly does the hope come from? Why have I put a – responsibly small – wager on Cambridge United to win the League One play-offs, when they only stayed up on the final day a couple of months ago? I look at our fixtures and cannot see us dropping a point in August. One game in and I’ve already checked the table every day since the weekend. Still fifth.

How much of my, albeit very limited, journalistic integrity have I lost by placing Spurs second this season? A prediction based almost entirely on a few gruff interviews from Ange Postecoglou and a 30-second clip at the Camp Nou of Tottenham playing out from the back for the first time since 2019? Please note Harry Kane is still there at the time of writing.