Unpleasant odour hangs over the new season

IT should be a time for a new coat of paint, the smell of freshly-mown grass and a joyful lift of the spirits as a new football season approaches.

A time to delight in the dreams of such as Wigan, as they embark on their first Premiership campaign and for every supporter of every club to blissfully delude themselves that this will be their year.

It should be, but it's not.

Instead it's a time to wonder whether football, with its Rio Ferdinands, Joey Bartons and Lee Bowyers, has ever smelled quite so rank.

Ferdinand's latest trick appears to have been throwing an offensive gesture at travelling Manchester United fans in Japan after United's embarrassing defeat against Kashima Antlers.

Not the crime of the century, especially when the same fans had been abusing him during the match for his refusal to sign a new contract.

But some day, when people such as Carlos Queiroz stop leaping knee-jerk-style to defend him, it just might strike Ferdinand why those supporters feel betrayed.

They buy the shirts and travel the world spending every spare penny on their passion, only to see Ferdinand refusing to settle for £100,000-a-week when less than a year ago the club were supporting him financially and psychologically when he was serving an eight-month ban after missing a drugs test through his own forgetfulness.

Some of those fans, one suspects, might also remember when he bumped into Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon twice in separate restaurants.

None of it, however, appears to register the merest flicker on the conscience of a man for whom loyalty and responsibility are not the highest priority.

Which brings us to Barton, a player whose party trick is stubbing out a cigar in a team-mate's eye and whose latest misdemeanour came at a cost of £120,000 in club fines.

A stiff penalty, some might say, except those of us who believe if he pulled on the blue shirt again this side of drawing his pension it would be too soon.

It defies belief that the club apparently granted permission for his night off in a Bangkok bar but then clubs are not renowned for their commonsense or moral fibre.

If they were then Bowyer would even now be trudging down to the local Jobcentre, rather than criticising Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd for trying to sell him behind his back.

Perish the thought that Shepherd would do anything behind anyone's back. Not that he needed to.

Birmingham were in for Bowyer until concerned fans scuppered the deal.

Charlton, too, have been reported as interested in taking back their former player, who faces a court case in September for his on-pitch scuffle with team-mate Kieron Dyer.

But then that's the problem. No matter how despicable the crime or how frequent the offence, there is always a deal to be done, always someone who believes they can tame where others have failed.

It's why Blackburn fans will be treated to an unholy trinity comprising Craig Bellamy, Robbie Savage and Paul Dickov.

It is why Graeme Souness, even after a season littered with disciplinary problems, still wants to buy Nicolas Anelka, a permanent sulk who flits from club to club spilling his demons over the changing room floor.

It is why Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger talks of the "strength and humility" of Robin van Persie, who spent a period of the close season in a Dutch prison while investigations continue into allegations of sexual assault in a Rotterdam hotel in June. "It is not easy what is happening to him," says Wenger.

Never mind the consequences. There's a new season to plan for, spirits to be raised, morale to be lifted, titles to be won. Unless you are a Chelsea fan, that perhaps brings us to the most depressing sentence uttered this close season.

"We're perfectly placed to start dominating this sport in the way we want to," said Peter Kenyon. That's the same Chelsea for whom the FA and UEFA's disciplinary committees could do with a revolving door so frequently were Mourinho and his staff in the dock last season during which they won the Premiership title but lost so much respect for their win-at-all-cost attitude.

The same Chelsea whose financial muscle threatens to make English football as predictable as tax in your pay packet. But, didn't you know, Mourinho has the toughest job in football. It's not easy spending the loose change of a Russian billionaire, he told us. And, truly, if you didn't laugh you'd probably cry.