BEING something of an infrequent attendee at football games I do, �nevertheless, follow passionately the fortunes of Peterborough United since reporting on their fixtures some 40 years ago.

Little, in reality, changes – including the absurd conversations football club managers have with journalists, the former eager to please and explain, the latter displaying their insatiable appetite for soccer news and gossip.

Take, for example, Posh boss Gary Johnson explaining away to the BBC the reasons for his side’s 5-1 defeat to Charlton Athletic at the weekend.

“Can I turn it around before the end of the season?” said Mr Johnson. “We’ll know at the end of the season but we don’t know yet.” Quite.

Mr Johnson, we’re told, also accepts the validity of assessing his influence on the side following that defeat and a recent drubbing at Brighton, and notes that “you always question everything when you lose – whether the training was right, whether your lunch was right, whatever it may be”.

Accepting we now have something in common (I, too, often wonder whether lunch was right) I do believe I will study Mr Johnson some more.

“People need to show me whether or not they’re up for this because I’m up for this,” he told his local radio station.

In case you’re wondering, no, they never asked the meaning of the �nonsense he was spouting.