FOOTBALL is back. It never really went away. The players just stopped playing for a week or two.
It becomes increasingly difficult to mark the point at which one season ends and the next begins. The FA Charity Shield used to be the English game's annual scene setter. Now it is more of a scene shifter, a reminder that the latest interlude between league programmes is all but over.
Tomorrow's Shield match at Wembley will recall the intensity and intrigue of the struggle for last season's Premiership title while offering the thought that the new campaign may proceed along similar lines. Because Manchester United again won the Double, they are playing not the FA Cup winners but the Premiership runners up, Newcastle United.
It is a fixture the country is agog to see, an hors d'oeuvre served at the perfect moment to tickle the public palate for the main course. Whoever wins, nobody is going to declare the championship a two horse race in August, not with Liverpool in an adjacent stable. But if, next spring, the title again rests between Old Trafford and St James' Park it will be no great surprise.
Around 45,000 Newcastle supporters will advance on Wembley hoping to see Kevin Keegan's team make a declaration of intent with a victory over Manchester United they have yet to celebrate in the Premier League. Their renewed faith is largely embodied in one man.
Forty five days ago Alan Shearer wore grey at Wembley and shared England's chagrin at losing to Germany on penalties in the Euro 96 semi finals. Tomorrow, or so Newcastle hope, Shearer's career will be reborn in simple black and white.
He has cost them £15 million, roughly the amount of the combined fees Manchester United and Liverpool spent on Andy Cole and Stan Collymore. A Shearer hat trick now and Newcastle will be even more convinced they have made the better deal. He has scored on each of his previous competitive debuts - for Southampton, Blackburn and England. Last night he scored in the friendly against Lincoln.
Not that a direct comparison with Cole, ex Newcastle, will be possible tomorrow. He has pneumonia. Les Ferdinand, who missed Newcastle's game at Lincoln last night with flu, may be fit.
Keegan has to work out how to fit the rest of his talented and varied attack around the newcomer. Alex Ferguson will have less of a problem accommodating Karel Poborsky, his £3.6 million signing from Slavia Prague and a man who has played at Wembley even more recently than Shearer, having appeared for the Czech Republic in the European Championship final.
Ferguson clearly hopes that Poborsky, along with Jordi Cruyft has ended his search for a successor to Andrei Kanchelskis. The only United player likely to be put out by the new arrivals, in the short term, is David Beckham.
No doubt Poborsky's inspired chip against Portugal in the Euro 96 quarter finals, rather than his flying dive over the outstretched leg of Matthias Sammer to win the Czechs a penalty in the final, did much to confirm Ferguson's interest.
The only recent Shield match of any note was Leeds United's 4-3 defeat of Liverpool in 1992, when Eric Cantona scored the first hat trick in the 19 years the fixture had been played at Wembley. By the end of November Cantona was at Old Trafford; so much for Charity Shield portents.
David Elleray refereed that match. Now, as the FA's whistling icon, Elleray has warned tomorrow's teams not to expect the sort of leniency from Paul Durkin which he himself has just displayed in advising Manchester United to withdraw Roy Keane to spare the midfielder the likelihood of being sent off pre season.
It is to be hoped, though not with any great feeling of anticipation, that during the coming season officials will opt for the quiet word before they reach for the yellow card. But most will again take their cue from Elleray and since Elleray referees by the book - in his case the book of Exodus - another explosion of cautions is likely.
The case for more consistency among referees remains strong. This summer the goals which have won the two biggest international competitions, Euro 96 and the Olympic tournament, have been allowed to stand by Italian referees despite players being in offside positions.
The first decision was debatable but justifiable, the second was plainly wrong. At least, in these instances, the refereeing was consistent. However, more awkward times for defences lie ahead.
The benign mood of Euro 96, which survived the most passionate English support at Wembley did much to convince the rest of the world that football in England had finally shaken off its hooligan image. Financial hooliganism is a threat but grounds are more civilised than they were.
True, one had detected an intensity of hatred towards opponents even before the Cantona business at Crystal Palace. This season Manchester United will again be the regular objects of Red Race.
Tomorrow Shearer will lead an early challenge to Old Trafford's now perennial presumption that they are cocks of the North. Certainly a win for Newcastle would ease still painful memories of last season's North eastern cock up.
