I’ve never been much of a football fan.

Yes, I’ll watch the big England games, but that’s pretty much it, but even then, I’ll usually only watch it if it is a BIG game.

Years ago, when the guys  used to come in to the office on a Monday morning and for the first half an hour the only topic of conversation was the weekend’s footie activity, I used to feel a bit left out.

“You were lucky at the weekend, weren’t you?” they’d say to each other. Or “We wuz robbed… no way was that a penalty”.   I didn’t know what they were talking about, so I couldn’t get involved with the banter.  I mentioned this to Coops.

“You need to pick a team and follow them”, he said.

“OK, who’s at the top at the moment?”

“Arsenal”

“Right, I’ll follow them, then”

And I did, but still not enough to actually have a conversation with anyone about it.

I never went to any of their games and I never watched them on the telly… apart from a couple of times in FA Cup Finals (I think).

And I still ‘follow’ them to this day.

If you were to question me on the team, I’d be able to tell you that they are doing quite well at the moment (2nd in the league at the time of writing).

I could also tell you the manager’s name – Mikel Arteta – and the name one of the players… Something Saka. I think.

But, honestly, that’s it.

Most of the time, I can’t tell you where, if or who they are playing or whether they won, lost or drew their last game.

They’re probably playing today, but I couldn’t tell you who or where.

Anyway, it’s The Beautiful Game.

Apparently.