Hello and welcome to what is officially the dullest time of the year.

Yes it may be warm and sunny, beaches may beckon and long evenings of drinking and carousing are most certainly on the cards.

But to us fans of the beautiful game, the almost total lack of football makes this an unbearable couple of months.

Previously I mentioned that we are in that horrible gap year between major football tournaments – and that harsh reality is definitely starting to bite now that the final World Cup qualifiers are over.

Yes, I admit, there is the women’s Euro 2005 tournament going on at the moment but despite my own attempts to convince myself it is a good enough substitute, I am fooling nobody.

I tried watching the England vs Denmark game on Wednesday and while it was entertaining and even exciting in places, it just wasn’t the real thing. Sorry ladies, but that’s the truth.

I have now started taking consolation from the fact that the proper World Cup is now officially less than a year away – 363 days to be exact – but that’s little more than a small crumb of comfort in these days of soccer starvation.

Interestingly, Sir Bobby Robson decided the year countdown was the right time to come out publicly and declare that England have a definite chance of winning Germany ’06.

And a number of other football personalities are crawling out of the woodwork to offer their opinions about who is going to come out on top in next summer’s festival of football fun.

So, although 12 months is a bit too far away to be making any concrete predictions, I thought I would jump aboard their bandwagon and let you know who I think will be making waves this time next year.

For a start you have to look at the main contenders who are, namely, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, England, Spain, Holland and France. Those four are the ones who will undoubtedly go into the tournament among the favourites and all have a pretty realistic chance of winning.

There was a time when Germany would have been an automatic inclusion in that group but, despite home advantage next year, the squad is so bereft of world class talent, I can’t see them having any real impact on the tournament.

Obviously with the qualification process still on-going it is hard to accurately predict which of the ‘second level’ teams will make an impression but you would imagine the likes of the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Portugal and Ireland will be making the trip and won’t be there just to make up the numbers.

The big question is will we end up with one of the recognised nations taking the trophy home or will there be a Euro 2004 type shock on the cards with another ‘Greece’ managing to go all the way?

To be frank, I can’t see that happening again, not next summer and not ever for that matter. What occurred last summer was a freak of footballing nature.

That’s no disrespect to the Greeks, but it should never have been allowed to happen and the bigger nations will make sure it doesn’t again by out-thinking, if not out-playing, any small team which starts to show similar delusions of grandeur.

So my predictions? Well, as much as I would like to see England win it and as much as I think they have the players to do just that, I don’t see it happening under Sven ‘one tactic’ Eriksson.

However, I also don’t see the trophy heading to South America. If I had to put my money on anybody at this early stage in proceedings it would go on either Spain or Holland.

Neither are setting the football world alight but they are both due a good run in a major tournament and next summer could be the one.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know. At least you will have something to argue about for the next 10 weeks...

Ashley Cole saga

A final thought for the moment on the Ashley Cole saga.

If he takes his appeal process all the way to the end and wins, and a new law is created allowing players to speak to other clubs any time they want, what will this new rule be called?

The precedent set by the Bosman case suggests it will be the “Cole Rule” but wouldn’t it be much more appropriate if it was “Cole’s Law”?

Just a thought.

Contact James on: [email protected]