Football Turning Into A Gaudy TV Show

The season is almost over, we only have 15 days left of the domestic season, and most Arsenal supporters have one eye on the cup final and the other on the transfer window.

Every other season we face a summer with no competitive football - unless you count the CONCACAF Gold Cup and people rarely do - so with no World Cup or Euros to enjoy what do we do?

In years like this it seems we spend most of our time trawling the internet for transfer rumours, aimlessly wandering through the weeks waiting for Jim White Day.

The transfer window has become a kind of secondary competition where we dissect each move, each missed opportunity and read and write articles about who has "won" the window. It's quite sad when you think of it. It has become a form of entertainment. It wasn't like this 15 years ago.

We talk about the soul of the game being lost with increased commercialisation of the game, TV fixures being schedule to the detriment of travelling fans, the distance between the fans and the players widening with every pay rise, the cost of a pie and a pint at the ground and most of all - ticket prices! Yet we are contributing to this gaudy transformation of the game from a traditionally social pasttime into an over-produced TV show.

It won't be long before players have their own run out music, the tunnels are filled with dry ice and we vote for signings and substitutions by telephone like some awful form of Britain's Got Tactics.

We can reverse this trend. We already have superb supporter's groups lobbying for cheaper tickets, the return of safe standing, competitive pricing on concessions and fair pay for casual staff. We can help by refusing to participate in the circus that is the transfer window. We can stop clicking links to rumours, we can turn off Jim White and his blindly hypnotic yellow power tie, and we can get involved with grassroots football.

Instead of watching the transfer window unfurl this summer why not watch a local football match, set up a 5-a-side tournament, go watch another sport, read a new book, try the Twin Spin slot, learn a new skill, get involved in community projects or just simply hit the beach? Do anything, just break the monotony and false hope of watching the same rumours being presented on different gadgets by Jim White and his cronies on loop.

Religiously watching the ticker tape banner is the worst possible way you could spend your summer.