Well, my blog article yesterday was relevant for about 12 hours! Anyway, it’s good to see we now have some firm plans in place for next season.
The report from the Evening Standard turned out to be a false alarm, and we look to have everything in hand for the start of the campaign.
Certainty about where we will playing will no doubt be music to the ears of Mauricio Pochettino. For the fans too, one more trip to Wembley in August will be something to look forward to.
Daniel Levy’s negotiations with the FA and the Premier League have to be credited here. The Football Association did not have to extend their deadline to allow us to play at the national stadium. Our chairman no doubt called on a few favours to make sure they stayed on side.
In the Premier League’s case, we would have had to persuade Richard Scudamore and the board to change the rules over having more than one home ground in a season. Even though it isn’t the most seismic of changes to the league regulations, it’s a definite positive for Poch and his players that we can have at least one “home” game in August.
With the rest of the fixtures away from home until Liverpool on the 15th September (with Watford agreeing to reverse the match on 1st Sept), it looks like the best possible outcome we could have hoped for
The away game at Manchester United was always an away fixture, and with the Wembley game in place, it means we won’t be heading to Old Trafford for a third consecutive match away at the start of the campaign.
Momentum is important at the start of the season, and the atmosphere could well have been very different on the back of a mixed start in four away fixtures heading into the opening match against Liverpool at our new stadium.
The curtain raiser against the Reds is a mouth-watering contest. With assurances that construction will be completed on time, fans can now look to a fixture with great anticipation. Hopefully, we can lift the roof off, and get off to a good start at our new home.