The search for something to fill the void these past months has seen One Direction’s Liam Payne go up against golf’s Ian Poulter in a Virtual Bahrain GP on Sky Sports and even the Belarus Premier League winning new audiences.
But it took Roy Keane, in all his ferocious, fulminating glory, to remind us how desperately we had needed the pantomime of football back.
A two-minute invective against David de Gea and Harry Maguire on Friday, delivered by a Keane who is clearly as much in need of a haircut as any of us, somehow encapsulated the release of pent-up frustration after three months of lockdown.