So, the first Saturday when none of the football teams I have been following throughout a fractious season are in action.  Their season is over, done with, finito and apart from minor issues like the Champions League final, the odd play-off final and the upcoming European Championships, there`s not much to occupy the minds of fans of proper football like me.  And so we are left to wonder what happens now.

And in doing so, it`s instructive to have a look at what fate might befall my heroes - beginning with Forest Green Rovers whose season ended in a narrow defeat in the League Two play off semi-final to Newport County.  What has happened in the last week following that defeat is that the club has announced its `retained list` along with the list of players whose services have not been retained.   Among them is our street`s local hero Scott Wagstaff whose contract was up at the New Lawn and, at 31, it was perhaps expected that he might not be offered another contract, especially as Forest Green have appointed a new manager to take the place of Jimmy Ball who, I have to say, impressed in the few games in which he was in charge.

For both of them the curtain closes on another chapter in their football journeys and time will tell whether new opportunities might open up for each of them, given the vast experience of the Football League that they have acquired over many years.  I hope they do.

For us Southampton fans, another few weeks of closed season speculation, hopes and dreams as attention turns to the transfer rumours.  There are some players who really do need to go and some who really do need to stay.  Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl claims he needs to `build from the back` but what he and the rest of us really need is a new benign ridiculously rich owner willing to plough most of his money into the club in order to supply the investment that is sorely needed.  Sometimes the closed season is more stressful than when games are being played.

Elsewhere, Brechin City`s fate has been secured and they now face a long winter ahead negotiating the farthest reaches of Scotland`s Highland League.  Their fixtures against Fort William will bring divided loyalties for me but they should be compelling encounters. Meanwhile in - deepest south Devon - Stoke Gabriel have at least maintained their place in the South West Peninsula League Division One East.  They must also build from the back, but also in midfield as well as up front if they are to stand any chance of competing on a level playing field next season.  And in Cornwall, I look forward to Truro City emerging from their extended hibernation following the curtailment of hostilities in the National Southern League South.

Not sure why I find comfort in following teams such as those - maybe they remind me of my own playing days in the dim and distant past when proper football was played at places like Frittenden in the Maidstone and District Saturday League Division 3B, where the sheep were herded off the pitch before play commenced, when games against them ended in 6-6 draws and where most of the attention was spent not on playing the game but more on avoiding the deposits left behind by the departing sheep.   Ah, the romance of it all.

Have a good Summer.