The Dreariest Months in Sports...and Everton

Oh, the dreaded summer months. Summer is always a slow period of time when it comes to football, but it usually tends to pick up as the beginning of the season approaches.This is not the case with Everton, though. The last couple of off-seasons have been agonizingly sluggish for Everton fans. This off-season, in particular, makes me feel like open heart surgery and brain surgery performed at the same time while awake would be better.

Even though it has been slow, there are still a plethora of baseless transfer rumors. The problem is, every time I see a transfer rumor, I somehow get sucked into thinking of the possibilities, our financial situation, and how it would benefit the squad (or not). The media (and my brain) is completely to blame for this. We all know the situation at the club. There is absolutely no cash. The effect of having no cash, generally, is that you can't really spend...money.

Moyes has been quite blatant to the public by telling us not to trust any rumors, unless it comes directly from him, because they simply aren't true.

Yet we still post about Everton possibly bidding £8 million on Shane Long or £10 million on Charles N'zogbia. Usually there is at least a 5% chance of one of these rumors becoming true, but right now there is none (unless of course we sell a Jags or Baines type player).Reading these rumors seems to be a complete waste of time given the information, but then again fanhood itself is irrational.

Football isn't the only sport in the world (I know, news to many of you). If you are an American, there are plenty of sports to follow throughout the year (American football, basketball, hockey, baseball as well as college versions of each sport). Unfortunately, all these sports (other than baseball and if you're in Australia, Aussie rules football) are also on hiatus every summer.

That leaves us with golf and tennis. Nothing against individual sports, but team sports tend to be much easier to follow over a course of a season. In sports like tennis and golf, your favorite player has a real chance of bowing out early on in a tournament. This generally leads to complete indifference towards the tournament afterwards. This is quite impossible in most team sports where there are constant matches during a season and always a reason to cheer, unless of course you follow Wigan Athletic (They have the 2nd worst Prem League attendance). The passion is constant and, for the most part, unwavering in team sports.

I understand that summer is a time to go out and enjoy the weather and do outdoorsy (forgive me) things. But the truth is, when I go into work, I don't really know what to talk about anymore. When Everton actually made a splash in the summer (no matter how small it was), there was always excitement and many plausible rumors thrown around. This leads to hours of debate, analysis, and complete disregard for work. Somehow, Everton have now found a way to ruin this too.

But stay cheerful everyone, because the boys in blue are back at training (just back from Austria) and we can finally see the light at the end of the off-season tunnel. The first preseason match starts in just under a week!

Just don't get your hopes up for signing.

Preseason and full schedule available at Everton's official site here.