A Sigh; Spring can be a Painful Season

Sigh. Spring beckons the winter-weary with playful rays of sunlight and budding flowers. But, for the European soccer fan, this time of year can induce the opposite of Seasonal Affect Disorder – do you suffer from “Seasonal-Abject-Depression”? Please, joint me as we mope together.

The harvest has been long, the winter cruel, and the missteps of the fall haunt you like a mansion’s deceased butler. As the roses bloom and the clouds part, do you only find yourself complaining about a running nose? A scratchy throat? Red eyes? Is your glass half empty, even though it’s half full of delightful wheat flavored beer?

As the young couples promenade about town, holding hands and smiling effervescently, do you find yourself full of jealous? Do you pass the day thinking about errant Nicklas Bendtner or Dimitar Berbatov headers, delicately plucking the pedals from a flower and saying “FA Cup…not this year. Premiership…not this year. Champions League…probably never”?

Have any ants ruined your picnic at a park? Is your sun dress an ironed, wrinkly mess? Do your khaki shorts make your thin-as-a-stick calves look, err, thin as a stick? Would one errant penalty kick in November have made you the happiest person in the universe? Does your heart ache for moment”s passed, for what if’s, for a time when Fernando Torres could run without spraining his MCL?

Spring is a time for new beginnings, but do you long for the summer already? Would you readily trade the humidity and heat for the glimmering prospect of a new manager or new impact player to trot about? Or is that just one of the many lies we tell ourselves, that with just one more signing we could….we could….Sigh. Sigh.

Hope springs eternal, but Spring encroaches upon the soccer fan like an enemy army assembling on a nearby hill. Despite the seasonal treats, the memory of another season past, another year of dust collected in a trophy case, stings like the harsh winter wind. Sigh.