You may have noticed a rather slow and sparse output of posts on Deep Into Injury Time this past week, you may have also noticed thousands of football fans on Twitter bemoaning the inability to watch their favourite team this weekend, and you probably recognised the fact that most of the conversation regarding the latest international break has centred around 'what is the point of San Marino?'
It's that time in the season when everything is at stake; championships are there to be won, Champions League places are up for grabs, relegation is close to being finalised in leagues all across Europe - it's an exciting time, probably the most exciting period of any football season.
Yet here we are, watching an England side devoid of star names who couldn't be bothered to turn up trounce, effectively, a subpar Sunday League side 8-0 on ITV with Adrian Chiles. This is not what anyone would particularly appreciate at any point during the football season, but in March? Just go away.
Obviously there is a need for these World Cup qualifiers to take place at some stage (even though I'm pretty sure most would agree that having a whopping 32 sides eventually head to Brazil in 2014 means that there're guaranteed to be some pointlessly awful teams turning out at the tournament), but why now? Is there not a better time? And even if there isn't, it doesn't make them any less spiteful for robbing us of the one thing we can all look forward to come the weekend.
I mean, did anyone honestly give a Gervinho about England on Friday night? Sure there's a bigger game to come on Tuesday night against Montenegro but quite frankly it's impossible for me to generate any excitement within myself for that either. Fact is, times have changed, and it's fairly evident that most football fans have far more affinity to their club than they do to their country. I hate Wayne Rooney and a handful of the other England players, and I make no apologies when I say I was happier to hear of Aaron Ramsey's strong performance for Wales and Olivier Giroud's goal for France than I was when I heard England had just gone 7-0 up against some students, olive oil makers and accountants.
For me, the only interest to come from international breaks is if a player from your club does something of repute or says something to the media. As I said, I was happy to see Giroud score for France and was intrigued with what Wojciech Szczesny and Thomas Vermaelen have had to say about their situations at Arsenal over the last week. It seems as though even when the players are away with their countries the headlines come from the implications inflicted upon their club based on what they say and do.
Enough about me, though, as just to prove that boredom during international breaks is not just confined to myself but a worldwide epidemic is that a quick search for 'international break' on Twitter generates the following top results from various tweeters:
"God I hate international breaks."
"I hate international breaks in football."
"RT if you hate international breaks."
Everyone loves the European Championships and the World Cup because they're both great spectacles and give us some top level football during a period of the year when we wouldn't normally expect to see much beyond money-spinning tours of Asia and the US. I'm not a hater of international football, but when the international football gets in the way of what I really love - Arsenal - then it really does grind my gears. And bore me to tears. And lead me to poetry, apparently.
Spurs fans, I'm pretty confident in saying, were more concerned on Friday with whether or not Gareth Bale wasn't getting injured than they were in whether or not England had scored a ninth goal. Aston Villa fans will be spending the break praying for the wellbeing of Christian Benteke, Manchester United fans will be hoping that Robin van Persie doesn't pick up an infamous international break injury, and Chelsea fans will be hoping an international vacancy might come up to tempt Rafa Benitez away.
Quite simply, most football fans care more about their clubs than their countries. We follow our clubs every week, and at this most crucial stage of the season nobody wants to see, or even pretend to be interested in seeing, England vs San Marino. On Tuesday we're treated to fixtures like Estonia vs Hungary and Ukraine vs Moldova. There is no tension and no excitement, sure you occasionally get a shock but for the most part the qualifiers just go by the book. It's boring, I want my Arsenal back.
It's Saturday afternoon and I'm not sat in front of the TV waiting for Soccer Saturday or making plans to hunt down a stream for the Arsenal game, it's a football-less weekend and I hate it.
International breaks, I hate you, and on behalf of myself and, I reckon, a strong proportion of football fans, hurry up and finish.
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