BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Europa League reshuffle has got my head in a spin

AS much as I love watching and betting on football every night, I still take every opportunity to remind people just how bad it was in the old days.

Many of the Sky generation find it difficult to comprehend that, in the age of four live TV matches a day, there was a time when the FA Cup final and an England v Scotland was your lot for a year.

Everyone knew where they stood. Two games in May and, if it wasn't a World Cup year, you would be starved for 11 of the 12 months.

Now, though, at least there is a bit of a regulation and routine.
Monday night is a Sky Premier League game, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are Champions League or Carling Cup, Thursdays are the Europa League, German action on a Friday night, Premier League again on Saturday lunchtime and teatime with Barcelona or Real Madrid to follow, and then at least a couple of games on a Sunday.

But now I am out of my comfort zone. My week has been disturbed and it's all making me feel a bit uneasy.

Why are we playing Europa League football on a Wednesday?

Why not, I hear you cry? After all, most of us gorge ourselves on junk food to such an extent that fish and chip consumption is no longer limited to Friday night andI have been known to consume the odd Yorkshire pudding on a day that wasn't the Sabbath.

But it still takes a bit of getting used to. I'll wonder if I'll make it in to work on Friday because I'll probably think it is Saturday morning.

Just think about the trauma you go through when you forget to put your clocks forward and then magnify it ten-fold.

I'm just glad I cottoned on to it now because otherwise I'd have missed the chance to back a Braga-Tottenham double, with the Portuguese outfit bound to make light work of Birmingham, while the feel-good factor at Spurs is likely to rub off on Harry Redknapp's second-string against PAOK.

That should help me cope with all the upset.