This year was no different and the agony was, of course, prolonged by Chelsea winning the Champions League. It is times such as these that the modern game would just disappear up its corporate backside and do all genuine football fans a favour.
The sensation usually lasts for about a month and then like the proverbial goldfish, I forget everything that made the game suck and find myself feverishly anticipating the new season. This is a biennial experience, however, since every other year there is a major finals to occupy the mind and the process takes place in a much shorter time frame.
This summer, Euro 2012 serves as the mind-altering amnesiac and with it (for the fans of certain clubs) the chance to glimpse those players who might be performing at their grounds in the season ahead.
One team who won't be appearing in Poland and Ukraine in forthcoming weeks but who will have several of their best players appearing in the Barclays Premier League is Belgium. Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and Kevin de Bruyne have all joined Chelsea, Jan Vertonghen is expected to sign for Tottenham Hotspur, Vincent Kompany will be helping Manchester City defend their title and Moussa Dembele, the Fulham striker turned midfielder, is most likely bound for one of England's elite clubs.
Marouane Fellaini, meanwhile, will do a lot of running about, kicking people and hairspraying. The list of top-quality players does not end there. Alex Witsel and Steven Defour have starred in Portugal this season while Dries Mertens has burst on to the scene in Holland.
Belgium possess some of the finest young talent on the continent and their exclusion from this summer's jamboree speaks in part to their inconsistency and also their relatively tender years.
Today, the British public gets a chance to take a closer look at the Red Devils when they take on England at Wembley and they are as big as 6/1 to pull off a victory.
To my mind that's too big a price, especially with a lot of players in Belgian colours hoping to make an impression on a crowd that will be watching many of them for the first time. As we have seen from the pantomime that has accompanied Hazard's transfer to Chelsea, the 21-year-old does not want for self-confidence and one would imagine he will be particularly keen to shine.
The flip side of the argument is that the Belgians might well be looking ahead to a couple of weeks break and might be guarding against injuries ahead of lucrative moves across Europe.
The same, though, could be said of England's players who are, after all, on the brink of playing in a major finals and might not want to miss out on that. Roy Hodgson's side were unimpressive against Norway in Oslo last weekend but, in mitigation, they were playing in a style to which they have not been accustomed at international level.
England have a good record at Wembley but they lost their last match here to the Netherlands, who in many ways, play a similar game to the Belgians. Perhaps, Belgium/draw no bet at 4/1 is the best option.
Selection Belgium/draw no bet (4/1, general). Season's total -£11.13
