The Football Season Has Arrived

As you read, I could be up in the Great British airspace aboard the Sky Sports News chopper, flying between a pair of trophy-winning clubs from last season. I'll be visiting different clubs across England and Wales, with 18 reporters on the ground delivering live updates from across the country...
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These are exciting times for football fans. There's only a day to go until the new Sky Bet Football League season starts - Barclays Premier League fans will have to wait another couple of weeks - and this weekend offers the first chance to see if that new manager has made the right signings, if the star player you sold has left a crater-sized hole, or if that dodgy centre-back from last season has tightened up his defence.

The slate has been wiped clean, and every team has a chance to make its mark. That includes champions Manchester United and challengers Manchester City and Chelsea at the top, down the leagues to newly promoted Mansfield Town and Newport County in Sky Bet League 2. The challenges facing clubs in the top four leagues differ in size, scale and money involved, but in the end it all comes down to one thing: winning matches.

But how do each team go about doing it? That's something my colleagues in Sky Sports News and I will discover today as we screen live reports from all 92 Premier and Football Leagues clubs, all in one day as part of 92Live. It's a broadcasting first and something that I'm really excited about.

As you read, I could be up in the Great British airspace aboard the Sky Sports News chopper, flying between a pair of trophy-winning clubs from last season. I'll be visiting different clubs across England and Wales, with 18 reporters on the ground delivering live updates from across the country. We'll be talking to players, managers and club representatives as we tell the story of a day in football, through the eyes of the clubs.

It'll be a fascinating insight into how all the clubs prepare for the season. What do they do differently? What's the same? What does a Director of Football do before kick-off? How do experienced players keep motivated? Which clubs have got new faces behind the scenes? Every aspect of running a club, we will cover. Over the course of the day we'll aim to peel back those protective layers around the clubs and discover what really goes on. I think we'll get some great stories from all the clubs we visit.

It's a logistical challenge for the teams at Sky Sports News, but one that I think is worth it. I know how important my team is to me, and we're trying to honour the passion that fans give to their clubs by bringing them the latest news that's important to them.

And then on to the season and the Football League's 125th anniversary. All the eight founding clubs still in the league will be in action in the first week, with Sheffield United against Notts County in the curtain-raiser on Friday night. It's the world's oldest club travelling to the world's oldest professional football ground. Sport doesn't get much more romantic than that! The Blades won the first ever meeting between the two clubs during the 1897/88 season, will it be the same result?

We'll know by Friday night. Bring on the football.

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