Well, the football season is here again - did it ever go away?  And from the safety of my bunker I have observed the first couple of weeks of the Football League and, now that Southampton have been promoted, the Barclays Premier League ("the best league in the world (tm)."   And what have I seen so far?   A few brief Snopper Street Footy Notes:-

The Saints, fresh from two consecutive promotions, have made a stuttering start to their Premier League campaign.   A plucky 3-2 defeat at the hands of Manchester City was followed yesterday by a 2-0 home defeat by Wigan.   So, nil points so far, lying in the relegation zone already and the trolls on the web forums are demanding panic signings and the head of manager Nigel Adkins.   You really couldn`t make it up.   After all, there are only 36 games left.

Meanwhile, I was pleased to see that Gillingham have now won all of their opening three games and lie in the promotion places already.  Their new manager, `Mad Dog` Martin Allen  is clearly making an impact and I hope it continues as the long suffering Gills fans deserve some good news for a change.

Charlton also find themselves in a new Division, having been promoted to the Championship and they have made a decent start to the campaign under manager Chrissy (`The Legend`) Powell, who keeps buying new players, the latest being ex-Saint Ricardo Fuller.  Our street`s pacy flanker Scott ("Six Pack") Wagstaff notched a goal in Charlton`s first game with a clever deflection but picked up an injury so hasn`t featured since.

My first impressions of the Premier League are, as expected, mixed.   Away from the results themselves, I`ve noticed a couple of things at St. Mary`s Stadium that seem to encapsulate much of the distaste I have for the `best league in the world (tm).`   The first is the installation of those annoying moving perimeter adverts around the pitch and the second is the installation of those posh comfy chairs in the dugouts, the Saints chairs being sponsored by Sunseeker, the boat people.   These new features provide yet more evidence that the game is more interested in commercial spin-offs and the comfy chairs provide almost an air of superiority for those who sit on them.   Oh for the days of proper dugouts, buckets and sponges, Dubbin and Sloan`s liniment.

Still it`s a game of two halves, it`s a marathon not a sprint and if the Saints can stiffen up the back four, find some creative quality in midfield and become more ruthless in the final third, then the struggle for survival might prove a shade more interesting than it does at the moment.  I live in hope.