MONDAY mornings are for the next nine months ruined.

The national scourge known as the Premier League has returned.

Reporting of games is not limited to Sunday as many matches are played on that day.

There is no escape as incidents off the field as well as on fill up air waves and are all over the newspapers.

I love football and watch it regularly but living where we all do, is not the Premier League a distant and irrelevant contest.

It must cost over £100 to visit a game.

Transport and high admission costs, plus food, drinks and a programme quickly add up.

It is not a world to dip into unless you are a lottery winner.

The alternative is one that offers many true delights.

Forest Green, Swindon and Cheltenham are within easy reach and the two Bristol clubs are not far away.

The of course there is Yate, Slimbridge and Cirencester Town as well as many thriving village teams.

Bibury and Poulton are on my radar as is the friendliest club of all, Brimscombe.

I yearn for the Tetbury Town of my youth to regain their form and position of the 1950s.

Perhaps I am wrong, being far too much a creature of yesterday but I want to support a local team, getting involved like a true supporter should.

My local paper (this one of course!) does exactly that.

How can anyone unless they come from such places have matching loyalty to Liverpool or Manchester City?

This morning was extra shocking. I see Jose Mourinho has become a pundit.

I thought this posing popinjay had left the scene, no longer being employed as a manger but too my despair there is no escape.

If anyone has found a Mourinho free zone please direct me to it.

Happily I will not see him at my favourite Forest Green, where the club has true values both on and off the field.

The vegan lunches are pretty good as well.

For a whole match day experience a visit to the New Lawn is something to be savoured, mind it can get quite chilly on a windy wintry day.

Let us hope we do not get too many of those.