Anne and I were chatting recently and I realised that football has replaced The Archers in my life. I can't listen to The Archers any more. Everyone in it is too young and/or too posh. So instead, the default on the radio is 5Live's coverage of football. And that gives me what The Archers used to give me - a soap opera community I can be vaguely, ambiently aware of and interested in. Characters, events, gossip. Kind of interesting but mostly fictional. And that's why I stayed up extra late to watch Leicester beat Southampton 9-0 on Match of the Day. It was an event like Grace Archer burning or Den and Angie at Christmas.
(I have many other posts I could write about me and football. Most of which involve me being very clearly 'not a real fan'. But they're for another day.)