The assumption was that players would be burnt out physically and drained mentally with a mid-season World Cup, but it was just a winter break for most. JohnnyTheNic
Over the years, myself and Dawn, my partner for the last 42 of them, have successfully managed to avoid Christmas and all its attendant routines, social obligations and traditions. It took some time to fully achieve the divorce because people think you’re weird if you don’t ‘do’ Christmas. You can see it in their eyes. They’re wondering what’s wrong with you.
And I don’t understand who or what Santa Claus is or what this peculiar fiction is doing in our lives. If it evolved out of the Green Man Pagan celebrations, I can see how leaving a wee gift for Jack In The Green works. If that’s it, we should be celebrating the return of the light, post-Solstice, not getting a matching tie and handkerchief set or soap on a rope, supposedly from a fat fella in red. It seems cut from an entirely different and frankly weird mythic tradition.
Some have told me that they wish they could side-step the festive season too, but there were so many assumptions made by so many people in their life that they would take part in it, in one way or another, that they found Christmas to be a Gordian knot they just could not cut. There has been an assumption that players will return from playing in a World Cup with their fitness compromised by the strain of intense competition. There’s an assumption they will be mentally burnt out after playing football’s biggest gig. There’s an assumption it will compromise their performance levels for the rest of the season.
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