SO I discover, through a hefty pile of junk mail posted directly to my home address, that Sky Sports have lost their stranglehold on televising live footie and a new company called Sentana will be screening some of the matches.
Great. Murdoch no longer has his grubby paws exclusively on our national sport, but I wish the Premiership and the new telly people could strike an agreement to let the games they show be held at 3pm on a Saturday.
The argument goes that if you did show them on a Saturday, you’d see gates dropping. But most clubs find they sell out each week, and those that don’t are struggling on the park and still expecting punters to pay top cash to get in. It is not the telly’s fault.
What I find galling is the fact I’m going to have to get up half way through the night to haul my backside to Sunderland on the opening day of the season, as the TV cameras have decided the sight of Roy Keane bursting a blood vessel as Spurs cruise to an easy victory will be worth catching at lunchtime.
How inconvenient. I don’t see the clubs laying on subsidised travel or cheap tickets to ease the fact that they have agreed to get us to play at an odd time in turn for a stack of cash.
I’m looking forward to Sunderland, and I hope they stay up. Did you know they are the only team to have won the league wearing a stripey kit? But despite such wonderful trivia, it’s still a long way away.
We have to put up with never quite knowing when our presence is expected (its no longer as simple as saying Saturday, 3pm, be there), and escalating prices. Last term, as Spurs chased a high league spot and played well in three cups, it began to exhaust the piggy bank, with tickets in the West Stand at the Lane costing £62 for cup games.
So here’s my message to Sentana, the new boys on the block: Can’t we play the games you show at a time that respects the fact we’ve got to schlep round the country to get there? It would win you much good will from armchair fans sad at the demise of Grandstand and World of Sport, and terrace fans, fed up with complicated travel arrangements because of Sky.

Is he right? What do you think? To let us know your views just email us at:
sports@camdennewjournal.