We've had heard keepers going on about the 'movement of the new balls', the papers have been tracking races for fitness and the office sweepstake has been drawn... it must be time for a major tournament to begin.
Only this year there is something missing. Where are the St George's crosses adorning white vans across the country? Where are the queues of people by the racks of 50 per cent off England shirts in Sports Soccer?
Of course, thanks to some bald Croatian bloke and a ginger chap with an umbrella, England will not be in Austria and Switzerland this summer.
As a result it seems the general public in England has greeted the return of Big Brother with more excitement than the tournament's opening weekend.
I'll admit this festival of football has somewhat crept up on me but I guarantee I will be watching hours of it over the coming four weeks.
The fact is major tournaments are what football is all about, they are what we will be look at many years from now - they are where the memories come from.
It's all very well being able to perform for club and country throughout a 15-year career but the moments that people remember, that they can still visualise, come from these grand occasions.
Cristiano Ronaldo may have been a superstar for Manchester United this season but say the name to a global audience and chances are the first image they will see in their minds is the 'winker' of Word Cup 2006.
His Brazilian namesake has hardly had the most consistent of careers with several injuries and weight problems, but 20 years from now he will be remembered as well as any player of our generation for his 15 goals across three world cups.
Ronaldo will forever be recalled scoring his two goals in the final in Japan with his infamous ‘crow’ haircut.
When we think of the footballing greats we picture their moments in the national shirt on the biggest stage, think of Pele, Maradona, Van Basten or Zidane.
It’s not just the mega stars who are defined by the big tournaments, Milan Baros has hardly been the most feared striker in his spells in the Premiership with Liverpool, Aston Villa and Portsmouth but he will still be remembered as the leading scorer of Euro 2004.
Try and think too of Toto Schillaci without thinking about Italia ‘90, Oliver Bierhoff without Euro ’96 and David Trezeguet without Euro 2000.
The fact is reputations will be made and stars will rise as people we have hardly heard of before will become household names in the space of four weeks (one of my tips is the Croatian Ivan Rakitic, a talented young attacking midfielder currently plying his trade with Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga).
The intensity of the football and the high stakes mean drama is inevitable and although there may be low points and, while we may not all be wildly excited about the prospect of Austria v Poland, there will be bags of entertainment.
For the record I have drawn the Germans in our office sweepstake – could be worse. I have also put a quid on Portugal to win at 9/1 at the bookies as well as a quid each way on Croatia at 16/1 and Russia at 22/1.
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