With the evenings beginning to stretch now, there is the faintest sense of a sporting season coming alive, but the past week was a matter of ploughing through the mundane.
Across the water, the great English managerial circus wheeled into Wembley, Howard Wilkinson leading his valiant young charges onto the sacrosanct turf while the TV lads gravely assessed his chances, as though the very fate of humanity rested upon a positive result against the French.
On ITV, Ron Atkinson sagely predicted that the wisest avenues of attack for the English ran along the flanks and he stressed the importance of England's wingers, Beckham and Anderton, by bestowing upon them the enigmatic and somewhat cultish title of "the wide people".
Their crucial width notwithstanding, it was a night for Gallic flair and one which afforded further credence to Nicolas Anelka's apparent desire to become the Greta Garbo of the Premiership. Loneliness, a distinct lack of Parisian suburbs, dire television and selfish team-mates are among the many trials the mercurial teenager would have us know he is struggling with in London - that's when he deigns to speak at all. (Why doesn't he share the money and buy a couple of his Trappes aimes a pad in Sloane Square so they can visit during the season?).
Old Nic celebrates his goal-taking as though the very ability to finish exquisitely is just another unwanted burden on his world-weary young shoulders, although he did let escape a charming sunburst of a smile on Wednesday evening. Big Ron could but grimace.
Back in Lansdowne Road and RTE were in adventurous mood, discommoding a clearly unhappy Johnny Giles by pitching him into an icy commentary box and naming Andy Townsend and Ray Houghton as the studio analysts.
The untested duo were unobjectionable if spectacularly determined to shy away from observations which weren't already patently obvious and it seems inevitable that Johnnny Giles - who on the night that was in it seemed content to refer to the Paraguayan defenders only by their shirt numbers - will be reinstated to the familiar terrain of the lights, the dazzling shirts and the gentle probings of Bill O'Herlihy, so to speak, once the serious business resumes.
Still, in a run of the mill week, the international friendlies were a welcome diversion. On rolled the weekend and on Sky TV, the rugby union clash between London Irish and Leicester was billed as one which could potentially define the outcome of the league.
The Irish were eventually overrun - or rather over-grinded - by the stupefyingly boring Leicester pack, still governed by the wooden hand of Dean Richards. But in the first 20 minutes, Leicester scrum-half Austin Healey daintily trod on Kevin Putt's face as he lay prostrate on the turf and didn't receive as much as a warning for his fancy work. Healey went on to make an arguably game-turning tackle on Niall Woods - who, incidentally, on this performance did not automatically install himself as Ireland's new kicking messiah.
So, for the second week running, a blatant indiscretion in a major rugby union match was immediately highlighted by the cameras (Philippe Benetton whacked Keith Wood in Dublin the week before) yet was neither noticed nor censured by the touch judges. Sure, back in the studio, Dewi Morris assented that Healey was fortunate to stay on the field but there remains this underlying acceptance of thuggishness within the game, that old Gareth Chilcott mentality which decreed that any decent forward would gladly forfeit the use of his ears and down a pint of after shave just for kicks on any given Saturday.
Healey's sleight of foot seemed all the more outrageous when judged against the shennanigans at Highbury, when a full-scale riot almost flared in protest at Arsenal's apparent failure to uphold the quaint notion of "gentlemanly conduct".
In a league which gives residence to John Hartson and Stan Collymore, invoking the term "gentleman" in relation to general conduct seems as worthwhile as mentioning Paul Merson while discussing occasional flutters.
But the Sheffield United players, manager Steve Bruce and the entire fan base were left apoplectic when Arsenal's Marc Overmars (maybe Anelka was right) slotted home a goal after his team-mate Ray Parlour appeared to want to return possession to the visiting team from a throw-in, in recognition of the decision by Sheffield United goalkeeper Alan Kelly to kick the ball over the sideline so play could be stopped.
"What's happening here?", wondered the bewildered BBC commentator Gerald Sindstat as Overmars slid the ball past Kelly.
Parlour's throw-in was intercepted by Arsenal newcomer, Nwankwo Kanu, who came on TV afterwards looking suitably mortified and pointing out, not unreasonably, that "it's happened and it's happened and that's football".
He being of African origin and this being British television, his mistake was put down to "naivety".
"Was he being naive?", the Sky reporter asked Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who gave a professorly gesture by way of agreement before sportingly offering to replay the game, which the FA and Sheffield United gratefully accepted.
Fine, but what if it had been an FA Cup final and Arsenal were adamant that the goal should stand? What could the FA do about Overmars's flagrant disregard for gentlemanly conduct then - ban him from the cigar room? Send him down?
Alan Hansen, for once willing to overlook the blatantly sloppy defending by United, pointed out that the FA had set a dangerous precedent. No rule had been broken, it was merely a breach of convention. The FA, Hansen argued on Match of the Day, will come to rue this day.
And he's right; the bottom line is that there is no room for gentlemen in the English game. That's why Vinny Jones got out long ago.
