Here we go again...

You know that the season is upon you, and one in the Championship at that, when you have to put The Football League Show on series link on your Sky+ box. Unfortunately, asking myself last season 'who watches this crap at half midnight on a Saturday night?' has severely come back to haunt me.

'You, Ed. You watch it. You watch Dele Adebola and Lewis McGugan and other useless-sounding strikers thump volleys past your hapless keeper, when really, you should be in bed'.

No, it can't be all bad. I can't have been lured in merely by the blandness of Manish Bhasin, when I'd much rather have the smug superiority of Gary Lineker, can I? There must be more to this Championship lark. Oh yes, I remember, we were only there 3 years ago... It was dire. And we got promotion. Imagine how bad it'll be when our season's over by November?

But of course! It doesn't happen like that, because the Championship is a proper league! A league where excitement is rife, where the top 6 positions aren't set in stone! Our season won't be over by November, it won't even be over by April, most likely. Who knows, when we line up to play Stoke in Bucharest in the Europa League final in the middle of May, it still might not be over.

Okay, perhaps being in the Championship once again has turned me into something of a fantasist. However, I am quite looking forward to the mystery of the 46 game season, plus a European adventure. I'll ride the 2011-2012 season like a shaman, twisting and contorting with every goal we score and concede in our new approach to the game. I'm quite looking forward to seeing what this attacking football lark is all about, while our friends the other side of the expressway in B6 start to eat their own fingers through boredom.

For me, this new season will be a mystery. I have absolutely no idea whether we should beat Derby on Saturday. Does Ravanelli still play for them? More intriguingly, I don't recognise the name Neil Swarbrick. In contrast to the inbuilt sigh I let out when I find out Phil Dowd or Howard Webb is the referee, the reaction to Mr Swarbrick's appointment was refreshingly neutral. He'll probably be crap, and I'll long for the Robocop ways of Webb once more.

Admittedly, the Blues won't be on the front of 'Match' Magazine anytime soon, but given that I'm no longer 8 years old, that doesn't really bother me. I also don't have to pretend that I'm excited by the prospect of playing at Old Trafford once more, 'cos it's all shiny and that and has a megastore, isn't it?' That might sound bitter, but honestly, it's not. I always get excited by the Blues playing, but last season, playing Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool away all in quick succession, and losing all three comprehensively, by the end, I didn't even bother looking at the score, I just waited until I picked up from somewhere that we'd been beaten resoundingly. But that can't happen this season, because I don't know where we should be finishing. Some Blues fans say survival would be a good season, others say anything less than promotion should be deemed as failure. Me? I'd be happy just seeing a few goals.

Currently, the Blues seem to be on a continuous cycle of dull season followed by exciting-bordering-on-catastrophic. This season, judging by the cycle, should see us meander into mid-table obscurity, whilst next year will either witness St. Andrews being burned to the ground or Lionel Messi signing for the club.

Having witnessed a cup win and 7 years in the top flight during my time as a supporter, I'm deemed lucky by those older than me. The reality is, that although opposing fans view our relegations as ammunition for laughter and mockery, anything else should be seen as a surprise. Blues have always been a good Second Division/First Division/Championship side, never a very good First Division/Premiership/Premier League team.

In summary, the Championship, with its wide raft of towns and cities that sound a bit crap but are probably a good laugh, will actually be one of the more enjoyable seasons I've had. I've already pin-pointed which towns I'll be visiting on which weekends, in order to coincide university visits to friends. I'm lamenting the lack of a Watford University already...