If LS Lowry painted 'Going to the Match' outside one of the Premier League's designated neutral stadiums, it would look less like the prelude to a game and more like a hazardous military expedition into no man's land. No fans and no anticipation, except the fear of where the next bullet is coming from.
I know we are all desperate for football to resume but are we so desperate that we turn a sport that we cherish for its escapism, its tribalism and its beauty into a giant sterile zone ringed by a cordon sanitaire where the ruling passions are fear and cynicism?