SAME OLD ROUTINE

JONNY BRICK APPRECIATES THE RITUALISTIC ARRIVAL OF A NEW FOOTBALL SEASON...

- JONNY BRICK

WARS, famine, disease, football: the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Nothing is certain but death, taxes and a Liverpool home win, although in a break from the norm Watford start this season with the same manager as the one who ended the previous one (Tom Cleverley).

Old faces are in situ at old places: Neil Harris manages Millwall, as he did between 2014-19, and Sheffield United's Chris Wilder will hope to bring a promotion spirit back to Bramall Lane.

This season's football calendar will include Ipswich Town v Nottingham Forest, two teams which four decades ago were among the best five sides in the country and are now somewhere between 15th and 20th.

In League Two there will be the novelty of a Kentish derby between Gillingham and Bromley, alongside another edition of Wimbledon Soul v Franchise FC.

We must also now refer to the Pilgrims as Wayne Rooney's Plymouth Argyle in a division where three teams are managed by Manchester United Premier League winners, three by Germans and two by Spaniards.

Portsmouth are back in the second tier for the first time since 2012, Wrexham in the third tier for the first time since 2005, where they will meet Rotherham United, who will spend their biennial season in the division and will hope for yet another promotion.

In National League South, I have the choice of four teams to support within a ten-mile radius of Vicarage Road: St Albans City, who have reappointed as manager their former captain David Noble; Boreham Wood, who have chosen Watford youth graduate Ross Jenkins; Chesham United, home club of Taskmaster's Alex Horne; and Hemel Hempstead Town, which is a quick train ride away from Watford Junction.