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Opinion

I just don’t want the holiday to end

6 years ago
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I am sure most of you can appreciate where I am coming from.

You are away on holiday and you just want it to go on and on, having such a good time and being able to forget about the day to day drudgery of life at home.

Occasionally that home life will pop into your head but another dip in the pool and a drink will make you instantly forget.

However, as going home gets ever nearer, those thoughts pop into your head more and more and the dread starts to build up.

No respect to the rest of my extended family but when I do get home from such a great holiday, the one thing that mitigates the depression is seeing our two dogs again.

After only four days in, I am well into full on holiday mode with this World Cup.

I remember Brazil 2014 being really good after the rubbish South Africa one of 2010 – but this one in Russia has instantly got hold of me.

The four favourites for the competition have now played and holders Germany have lost, Spain and Brazil have drawn, whilst France were lucky to scrape past Australia.

What it tells me is that pretty much every game won’t be a foregone conclusion.

To be honest I have no expectations of England and any contribution by them to my enjoyment of the World Cup will be a bonus.

I don’t see any real top quality apart from Harry Kane and anything on top of getting out of the group stage would be good.

With at least three matches per day, sometimes four, for the next week and a half, what is not to like/love? After that the number of games will drop to a couple a day but they will be higher quality and all or nothing knockout games.

The more I enjoy it and the longer the tournament goes on, I just know that the end of holiday type depression will start to set in more and more.

I live in hope the transfer market will burst into life for Newcastle and Rafa Benitez will discover the combination to Mike Ashley’s St James Park safe – but no signs of that so far.

We all know that so much of watching/supporting Newcastle United isn’t about enjoyment instead it is more about taking your punishment and gritting your teeth through adversity.

It shouldn’t have to be quite that severe though.

I did enjoy last season, up to a point, but celebrating staying up and getting a few more points than expected, can only be a short-term plan for both ourselves and Rafa Benitez.

We all hope Rafa is enjoying his well deserved break but the total silence from him is worrying.

His first summer in charge saw fairly regular quotes/soundbites from the manager, reassuring Newcastle fans that the summer rebuilding programme was on track.

However, this time there has been nothing, apart from club released quotes as part of the Dubravka loan to permanent signing.

This silence is very very similar to what happened last summer, with Rafa Benitez keeping his counsel until the squad were away in Ireland on pre-season.

Rafa then revealing how let down he felt on the lack of transfer activity and how he hoped/expected this would change soon.

We are two weeks away from the players returning for pre-season and around three weeks until they head off to Ireland this time. The first friendly taking place in Ireland two days after the World Cup final.

In the meantime I will be very much enjoying my World Cup ‘holiday’ but as we get ever closer, I will be starting to dread the return to drudgery.

Unless that is Ashley properly backs Rafa Benitez this time and I can move seamlessly from World Cup mode to looking forward to NUFC in the Premier League next season.
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