End of an era

This Premier League closing weekend felt quite monumental.

Realistically, it didn't have too much at stake on the pitch. Yes, the European placings needed ironing out, and we all wondered if Spurs had one last nerve-jangling moment left in them. The big decisions had already been made.

The real upsets, the real victories, the real emotion came off the pitch, or perhaps more accurately, from those leaving the pitch.

It felt like guards of honour were popping up all over the place from 55 minutes into games onwards. No need to ask Roy Keane what he thinks about that, by the way, we all can guess!

David Silva, John Stones, and of course, Pep Guardiola all got their send-offs. At Anfield, Andy Robertson and Mo Salah raised their hands to the adoring throng and walked off into their respective red sunsets.

None of these players are retiring, by the way. Simply moving on. Acknowledgement of their service and trophies presented to their fanbases.

Guardiola is getting a statue, a stand named after him and if stories are true, a global ambassador gig with City. I’m not convinced by that last one, by the way, it feels like Pep’s true heart lies in the Catalonian sun rather than the rainy winds of Manchester. I’m not questioning his love of City its just that for so many of us, our first love is our one true love.

Is Pep the best to ever do it? Maybe. Misty-eyed nostalgia will bring Ferguson, Wenger, and even Mourinho (maybe) to mind. However, comparison is the thief of joy, as a great man once said, and perhaps we should just be glad we were there to see it all. In saying that, if Pep won the SPL with Aberdeen……

What happens next at the Etihad and at Anfield could be anyone’s guess. Who comes and who goes? Can either team take the title back from Arsenal, or are they to become the next big powerhouse after so long waiting in the shadows? It certainly feels like all the parts are there to do just that!

With nearly the entire top half of the Premier League in Europe next season, following a World Cup, could it all be up for grabs as fatigue and injuries take their toll?

At the bottom, poor West Ham filled the final relegation spot. Spurs survived their tribulations, and even David Moyes couldn’t conjure anything to save West Ham again. Karen Brady has departed the boardroom, and David Sullivan left his seat early at yesterday’s game, presumably in a puff of dark smoke. It all feels like the rats are deserting the ship.

With the competitive nature of the Championship, you can never be sure of a straight return to the promised land, and with player sales an inevitability and rent to pay at that terrible stadium. The books will take a tremendous amount of balancing to make an instant return a reality.

Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City will join the pantheon of pub quiz trivia for relegated teams. Frank Lampard will return to Premier League touchlines, Hull will change managers three times before Christmas, and Ipswich might….might just stay up. Will any of them ‘Do a Sunderland’ next season? I’m not convinced, but Coventry and Ipswich at least will make a good stab at survival, I reckon.

Finally, the true end-of-an-era moment this weekend didn’t even happen on the pitch but rather on our screens, as Football Focus bowed out of the rotation after fifty-two years of providing fans with updates on their teams, comings and goings, and the big stories of the week.

Sadly, much like myself, it can no longer keep up with the pace. We receive all the information it so lovingly provided instantly, in many cases directly from the clubs themselves. Texts, social media, are operating at a speed that a weekly magazine show simply could no longer manage.

We even have clubs, making their own documentaries, providing a level of access that the press could only dream of. Mind you, if someone says ‘back to back, to back’ one more time on that Wrexham documentary I may throw something at my TV!

I have many fond memories of it being on as I came in from playing football as a kid. As I ate lunch, it took me through many a footballing moment, providing information, comment and knowledge of teams I would never have heard of in any other way in the 80s and 90s.

Football Focus leaving the stage is not a failure, but simply an acknowledgement of one era ending and another beginning.

I’m grateful to have been a viewer. I’m thankful that I got to see Salah dominate and Guardiola coach the game into something altogether different from the game I grew up watching.

There is change afoot, a new era is on the horizon. The old heroes will fade into memory, and the crown for the new idols awaits. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens next!