I’ve read a lot of articles over the past few days talking about the significance of the traditional tsunami of friendlies teams that wash over football at this time of year.

How important are they when it comes to building momentum? What do they tell us about how teams are shaping up? What bearing will these games have on the season ahead?

Well I think we can summarise the level of their significance in one word: zero.

I appreciate it is still summer and proper football news has been pretty thin on the ground over the last few weeks, but trying to read something into these non-event games is little more than desperation.

For example, I’ve lost count of the number of commentary pieces I’ve read about Liverpool and how their very poor form in warm-ups doesn’t bode well for their league challenge.

Fair enough, I’m pretty sure they would prefer to be heading into the new season on the back of half a dozen comprehensive victories. But the fact they have struggled in their pre-season games will have absolutely no bearing on what happens when the real business starts.

Jürgen Klopp’s side have been missing many of their best players during pre-season through a combination of injury and the fact that the likes of Sadio Mane, Mohammed Salah and Roberto Firminio have been on international duty.

Yes, their replacements could have done better and this does quite possibly highlight a concern about their strength in depth. But when they have a full squad to pick from they will be an entirely different proposition.

And it’s not just Liverpool – the same lack of relevance goes for just about every other club in English football. Most have been using these games to bed-in new players, offer trials to potential signings, test new formations and generally regain match fitness.

In fact, most games see clubs swapping entire teams at half-time or during the course of the match, and that makes it little more than a training session with paying fans on the side.

Some managers may argue that they never want to lose a game, friendly or not, but I guarantee you will struggle to find any top player who is willing to risk a season-ending injury in a warm-up game against Burton Albion.

That’s just a simple reality.

However, having said all that, friendly season is now over, and today things get formally under way with Man-chester City taking on Liverpool in the Community Shield.

Okay, it isn’t what you might call a proper, first-class match but the very fact that it involves last season’s title winners and the team that pushed them all the way makes it considerably more significant.

Both teams will be wanting to lay down a marker for the nine months ahead: City will want to show that they are still the team to beat while Liverpool will want to show that they can beat the team to beat.

This could well be one of those games that turns into a hard-fought and passionate classic

Given everything these two teams went through last season, this could well be one of those games that turns into a hard-fought and passionate classic, almost against its will.

Looking forward to it for many reasons, not least of which is that when the whistle blows for kick-off this afternoon, that will signify that the barren emptiness of summer is pretty much done with. And those of us who have been walking around with emptiness inside will soon begin to feel whole again.

Bring it on.

Glorified calculator makes its predictions

I know it’s my Premier League predictions you are waiting for – and I hope to have something with you shortly – but in the meantime how about these from BT Sports super computer ‘The Script’. (Yeah, I don’t know what the name is all about either).

This marvel of modern technology sucks up all available data, churns it around its processor for a while and spits out what it thinks will happen in every single game of the Premier League season.

Which is pretty much what I do but without the processing power. (Or success, I hear you cry).

Anyway, The Script has decided, in a burst of originality, that Manchester City will win the title again this year. And if that wasn’t staggering in itself, it also suggested Liverpool will finish second and Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur will make up the final Champions League slots.

So basically what this magnificent piece of technology did was take a little look at last year’s final table, figured little had changed, and decided it would be easier to copy and paste than bother with any fancy calculations.

It then took its lack of effort to even greater levels when it came to my team, Sheffield United: newly promoted + not spent hundreds of millions of players = certainties for relegation.

Not just relegation but this rusty bucket of bolts also believes we will finish bottom with just 32 points, will lose our first match 4-1 and, at some point in the season, be on the end of a 6-0 spanking by Liverpool.

Now I’m not saying those things are impossible. They may actually be quite likely. But being written off in such a dismissive fashion by this wannabe Deep Thought makes me want the Blades to defy the odds (and the algorithms) even more.

Anything but marvellous

Seven days ago I said Aston Villa were pushing the whole team rebuilding thing a bit too far on their return to the Premiership. That was when they had made nine new signings.

A couple of days ago they signed Zimbabwe international Marvelous Nakamba – their 12th new signing of the summer.

That is just silly and excessive. It simply won’t work. Too many new faces, too much upheaval, too little cohesion and the utter erosion of team spirit.

I’m not saying Villa are doomed. But I think they are seriously going to struggle. And if they do, it will be this outrageous £120 million spending spree that is to blame.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade