The 2020/21 FA Community Shield – followed somewhat bizarrely by an international window – kicked off the most congested season in history. That being the case, quite why it was staged at all this year was a mystery.
When you have a campaign with the winter break axed and every midweek slot already filled, one which will see England cram in three matches into the space off six days in October, does the domestic calendar really need an August add-on? If Mr Creosote is sated; the last thing he needs is a wafer-thin mint.
It wasn’t as if Wembley was some wonderful summer day out for the supporters of Liverpool and Arsenal yesterday. The cavernous bowl was an echo chamber with 90,000 vacant red seats, the skies grey and the temperature autumnal.
We have missed enough football for it to sound churlish complaining at matches going ahead but everybody could have lived without yesterday’s occasion.
Still, there are contracts to fulfil and broadcasters to satisfy, so – fresh off the beach – the Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners dutifully did their thing.