Several media outlets have been carrying the news of when the Premier League fixtures will be released meaning that it will not leave much time between knowing the dates of the games and them actually being played.
The popular date for the release of the Premier League fixtures seems to be in a week's time Friday 21st August, only three weeks before the start of the season on September 12th.
The end date will be Sunday May 21st 2021 just 19 days before the start of the rescheduled Euro 2020 or is it Euro 2021 now ! There is also the cup final to be slotted into the calendar.
Even Sky seem reticent to announce the exact date the fixtures will be out, they say that it will be "by" that date, so in theory it could be any tie between now and then, although I would say that Wednesday would be the earliest.
Why it is taking this time is a mystery, the planning will have been going on for a long time now and most of the fixture list would have been in place before the play off final at Wembley on 4th August 10 days ago.
Indeed the fact that the game was between two clubs only a few miles apart would have been a help in that essentially the logistics would have been virtually the same for both clubs.
Football fans like to get the dates in their diaries early so I can't see why there is a wait, aside from the fact that for the first month at least with no fans being allowed into the grounds, it won't make so much difference where you are.
In this equation there is also the question whether every game will be televised as in lockdown or will it now revert to the usual scheduling with around half of the fixtures shown live.
Anyway it seems that we now have only a week to go and then the real planning starts and that is how each individual club gets it's supporters back into limited capacity stadiums.