After the two-week jamboree of minority sports that was the Olympics drew to a close at the weekend, there will be those who seek to do down the return of football to centre stage in Britain.
They will characterise the Best League In The World as a harsh return to reality after the sporting dreamland the country has inhabited for the past fortnight.
They will have cast the Community Shield — a 3-2 win for Premier League champions Manchester City over FA Cup winners Chelsea at Villa Park — as the Ringo track at the end of the Beatles album which was London 2012.
Do not listen to these people.
As a football fan, now is the time to reclaim the back pages, the endless hours of live TV coverage and the water cooler chat that is rightly yours.
You know that the Olympic Games were not real. It was a land of make-believe in which you were forced to care about team canoeing and taekwondo for fear of being seen as a party-pooper.
Listening to pub bores and experts in their own living rooms try and explain the nuance of platform diving or the credentials of modern pentathlon was a summer hazard you no longer have to endure.
You are not moved by supreme physical specimens redefining what is possible in sport with astonishing feats of brilliance.
You care about Everton agreeing a fee with Manchester City for Jack Rodwell, even though neither club will tell you exactly how much that fee is.
It does not interest you to see amateur athletes mouthing words of tribute to lost relatives in their brief moment of glory, but it does to find out what the message on Carlos Tevez's T-shirt means.
You do not care about seeing sport in its purest form, played out in the spirit of fairness enshrined in the Olympic Oath which all competitors, judges and officials must swear to uphold.
You care about debating whether or not Eden Hazard is a shrewd operator or a filthy cheat for going to ground early in the match.
What is important is not that a star-studded Brazil team featuring Neymar suffered a shock defeat in the Olympic final that keeps them waiting for a gold medal. What is important is speculating endlessly about where Neymar will be moving when he leaves Santos in two years' time.
You no longer need to faux-drool over beach volleyball, trying your best to ignore the fact that it is not only an atrocious sport but also not very sexy at all, when it is once again open season in the tabloids for myriad kiss-and-tells and scandals involving high street honeys.
Who needs to see 204 nations coming together under the unifying banner of sport when the next football race storm is surely just around the corner?
Who needs to lavish worthy praise on tens of thousands of volunteers when there are referees and their assistants to hurl abuse at?
And who needs informative and insightful commentary when you can listen to Mark Lawrenson's belligerent bon mots safe in the knowledge that you already know everything and your opinion is the defining one.
After six long weeks without top-level football since Spain won Euro 2012, the drought is over. Make sure you cherish every minute of the next nine months of action, because it will be over before you know it.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "He's in a proper mess. It's been terrible to watch. Quite often he will go to a local shop in Bournemouth to buy a bottle of gin late morning. He is existing on a diet of gin, lager and vodka." — A source tells the Daily Star about the state Paul Gascoigne was in before re-entering rehab at the weekend.
FOREIGN VIEW: "I am hurt by the sentence and I would like to confront those who accuse me. It is a strong protest but they are ruining my life for something I have not done. I will stay here until I can't do it anymore." - Emanuele Pesoli chained himself to the gates of the Italian football federation headquarters in Rome and went on hunger strike in protest at being banned for three years in a match-fixing scandal.
COMING UP: Liverpool legend Jan Molby writes his first blog by looking back at the Olympic football tournament.
It's the first day of life after London 2012, but Eurobot is here to fill the void with yet another day of transfer rumours and done deals.