Friday 25 March 2016

Easter internationals lacking in eggcitement

Easter has long been the forgotten son of the festive family but this year it's really out on its ear.

Never a beneficiary of the turkey roast or the gifts of Christmas, never about the booze-fuelled all-night revelry of New Year.

And always lacking the American high-school promotion drive that has seen Halloween make such a comeback.

Easter did at least have the football. And that kept us all coming back.

True there are also the chocolate eggs and the Easter bunny - but once you are old enough to understand Playboy and Donnie Darko, even fictional rabbits lose their innocence.

I suppose Easter's biggest problem is that you can never quite tie it to a regular date. 

The movable feast is like that flaky mate who never texts back and is hard to pin down for a catch-up in the pub. 

But all this time at least it had two glorious full fixture lists where we would all reunite over a quick-fire double bank holiday and battle for grid positions before the end-of-season run-in.

No sooner have the papers finished their follow-ups to Good Friday's action-packed programme, they would be previewing the Easter Monday line-up as campaigns hurtle toward their conclusion.

Whether you hoped your team could prolong a title chase, mount a last-ditch play-off charge or steer away from a relegation scrap - by the end of the Easter double header you knew where you stood.

This year is different. This year it's internationals. Not just that but, as far as Europe is concerned, international friendlies. And it's just not fair.

They can't even play them all on the same days. Wales drew 1-1 with Northern Ireland last night. Nobody noticed.

The Republic of Ireland play tonight and England play tomorrow. 

It may be a designated Fifa international week - but with Euro 2016 coming in June, does UEFA really have to follow suit? 

England may be playing Germany then Holland but it's scant consolation. Since when have these big pre-tournament friendlies ever told us anything about the progress of our national team?

Prior to Germany 2006, England beat Argentina 3-2. Did it help? Did it 'eck! 

It may have meant we could beat the Argies but it didn't mean we knew how to take penalties and out we went to Portugal in a quarter-final shootout.

Again in late 2011, we won a tight backs-to-the-wall friendly with Spain 1-0. Come Euro 2012 we still could not take a penalty and again crashed out in a shootout to Italy.

Maybe instead of booking these high-profile international friendlies, players could spend the weekend at home practising penalties in the garden. That would probably do us more good.

Or just crack on, get the season done, finish a week early and give the national teams an extra week together over summer - wouldn't that be more beneficial?

I suppose it's nice that the two-week delay in Spurs' next league game means our title charge will last into April. And then who knows?

When all's said and done there is one thing this Easter offers that Christmas, New Year and Halloween could never dream of... 

The clocks go forward tomorrow as we kiss goodbye to the long cold nights. No other festival can promise warmer temperatures and more daylight can it!

So screw you winter, with your popular public holidays. And screw you Fifa, with your immovable international breaks!

Because summer is coming and, especially as far as Spurs go, the future is bright.

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