I TRUST you’ve all had a rubbish week.

Nothing can be more depressing as the nights draw in and the weather gets colder, than a two-week break from PROPER FOOTBALL for the Nations League.

What have we had to talk about?

In our house, we used the time off on a series of failed pursuits: downloaded Duolingo to learn Spanish but quickly got bored and joked hilariously about how we only needed to know the word cerveza anyway; argued for a couple of hours about whether Dr Spock was dead or alive; tried to make something called “risotto” without burning the pan; and took the dog for a walk so long that he slept for two days. I sang, painted, wrote.

At one point, I was ready to go on doorstep and clap for the doctors and nurses who would have faced a longer shift than normal to cater for all the people who decided a no-football weekend meant finally getting the ladder out of the shed to clear the guttering.

It won’t always be like this.

As much as Sam Matterface and Lee Dixon clearly enjoy their commentators’ box bromance on ITV, most of us are surely sick of watching England matches instead of our favourite club teams.

Maybe it would all be more interesting if England were a dynamic team to watch and, true, things have improved marginally since Gareth Southgate’s mind-numbing management was brought to an end. But it needed a penalty and a red card to break down Ireland on Sunday and the first half made you wonder whether England will ever beat one of the major world powers again. Southgate didn’t manage it (Germany were washed at the time of that 1-0 win).

Maybe a step to a new era would be the unthinkable to many. Maybe England would be better now without Harry Kane. To be exciting relies on pace, and Kane is now too slow to chase a ball over the top.

He is also strangely addicted to dropping back to play some sort of maestro role where he both sets the goals up and somehow scores them as well.

It’s like he wants to prove he has a marvellous football brain when his real talent has always simply been a dead-eye killer instinct for finishing.

Maybe he got bored of doing the same thing – shoot, score, shoot, score – and like Bob Dylan going electric or Miles Davis trying pop, he has been mistakenly doodled off to find some variety and new meaning.

I know its too late for managerial applications, but Kane should just be told to stay up there and kick it in the goal. He’s a master at scoring when you don’t have to think about it.