Last summer, a few weeks after Norwich City’s entirely avoidable relegation from the Premier League, the World Cup got under way in Brazil. Of course, I watched it. To bridge the gap between Norwich losing 2-0 to Arsenal and that Brazil v Croatia match, I watched the two friendlies England played in the USA against Ecuador and Honduras – the second game was so uneventful that I remember it mostly for the referee taking the players off the field for a while because of lightning.

The football thirst was not quenched after 64 games in 32 days. I went hunting for more, and found Newcastle playing in the ‘Schalke 04 Cup’ on a Freeview channel so obscure I can’t remember the name of it. At last, the second weekend in August saw the competitive action kick off once again and the waiting was over.

By January, though, I think I was getting a little fatigued. The Premier League was as dull as it had been for a long time – it had been obvious since October that Chelsea were going to win the title, it was just a case of when, and no matter how hard Sky Sports tried to convince us that they were, Manchester City were never really in it. This was a problem, as I find Chelsea difficult to like, as they played less like a fluid example of the beautiful game at its best and more like a machine focussed on winning and winning alone. There was no entertainment. The ‘race for the top 4’ featured only Manchester United and Liverpool, and even that wasn’t a close race. I have so little interest in the Europa League that I did not give two hoots about who qualified for that. At the bottom, Burnley were obviously a hard working side without the quality required to stay up, QPR were the circus that they usually are, and Hull’s final day survival task looked a long shot from the start. The only real excitement was the remarkable recovery of Leicester City, who spent 140 days rock bottom of the league only to finish pretty comfortably safe.

I was still more than interested in Norwich, of course, especially as in January things changed with Alex Neil becoming manager. I’ve written plenty about the great season we’ve had, culminating in promotion through the play-offs. You can relive it with my season review, which is in two parts.

With all this in mind, I took the decision to have a proper break from football this summer. I wouldn’t watch any live action between the Champions League final and the start of the new league season in August. That means no internationals, no Women’s World Cup, no friendlies and no Nathan Redmond in the Euro Under 21s. I’m doing this so I can feel properly refreshed for next season, and I’ve made it to 4 days so far – surely the next 60 or so will be a breeze?