It’s all over now for another season; the leagues, the cups and now the play-offs.

The champions have been crowned, the cups presented to the winners, the celebrations of those promoted have died down and the despair of those relegated is being accepted and dealt with.

With no World Cup to look forward to this year, the summer will be one that is barren of football, save for a few friendlies of course.

Even though World Cups or European Championships only come around every two years, meaning that every other summer is one without football, there is always a persistent feeling after the final matches of the season that a good friend has left the party, albeit one who will return again later in the year.

So now other interests and pursuits will have to take the place of football for the next few months, and it’s not like I don’t have any other interests. This summer I’m off to a music festival in Spain, and I’ll no doubt be checking out other live music throughout the months of June, July and August.

I’ll probably watch as many, if not more, films than I usually do, socialise with friends and family and generally enjoy the summer.

But even though all that will be going on I know that in the back of my mind I will be praying that Dimitar Berbatov doesn’t leave White Hart Lane, and I will continue to scour the newspapers and websites for transfer news and gossip. At this time of the year, football pages and columns everywhere start to resemble one of those celebrity gossip magazines like Heat or OK!, with stories and speculation everywhere; some possibly true but most just completely ridiculous.

For me, when it comes to sport, this summer will be strangely quiet. I just can’t get into cricket; I have a passing interest in Wimbledon but only really ever watch the finals. I’ll probably check out the NHL Stanley Cup games but even though I like ice hockey it’s really no substitute for football. I can enjoy it, even get quite excited watching the games, but it doesn’t bring out the passion that football does. It doesn’t feel quite such a major part of my life, or so important.

It’s strange, I suppose, that something like a game which involves 22 men chasing a round object around a field of grass should take up so much of my time, but then if football was rational our devotion to the game wouldn’t be the same; we wouldn’t love it quite so much.

So now Saturdays and other days of the week will have a new kind of freedom to do other things; no making sure you’ve set the video to tape Match of the Day, checking the scores on your mobile phone, or travelling to matches.

Even though there may be more free time, the lack of football will leave quite a gulf for a few months. While it will be missed, there will be an eager anticipation until the new campaign kicks off in late August with all the usual optimism that always arrives with the start of every football season.

Also sadly coming to an end is Voiceoffootball. As this will be my last column, I’d like to extend a big thank you to Beth and all the Voiceoffootball team for setting up this site and all their hard work. Also I’d like to say to my fellow columnists that I hope you all continue your good work in some corner of the internet.

As for me, I’m still going to be publishing articles, so if any of you out there who’ve seen my column would like to read more it will continue in blog form at http://footballcolumn.blogspot.com. It’s not quite completely set up yet, but give it a few weeks and it should be up and running, so if you get the chance have a read.

Enjoy the summer.