Bradford Park Avenue boss John Deacey cannot wait for the football season to get underway, even though he has been busy since the last campaign ended.

He has spent a lot of time locked in meetings with the Avenue board and held regular talks with players as he looks to revamp his squad with a bigger budget – but he did find time to make his annual appearance at the Veterans' World Cup.

The Avenue manager said: “It’s supposed to be the close season but it’s been non-stop. I’ll be glad when the new season gets going.

"We have to go through the summer – getting the deals done, organising friendlies, working out the training schedules and making arrangements for where we are going to hold them.

“But we do it with that first game of the season in mind. I just love the matches – the game of football – all the rest doesn’t interest me.

"I’m not one for the trappings of it and social side. I think everyone at Bradford, and Farsley for that matter, knows that because I never hang around after games.

“I speak to the players in the dressing room and then do the press briefing and them I’m on my way back home, thinking about how the game went, what we could have done better, who the next opponents are and what will be the best team and tactics to win it.

“Then the next day I’m up and out watching prospective opposition or other leagues scouting for players. It drives my wife mad but she’s used to after all these years.”

The Avenue manager may live and breathe football but he still finds time for his family and his successful business life.

He also took a couple of weeks out to indulge in his passion, still playing the game in his 50s.

Deacey has been enjoying watching the World Cup in Brazil but it was only a few short weeks ago that he was overseas himself. He was involved in the veterans’ tournament, and Roy Hodgson, Steven Gerrard and the like would do well to match him.

“I really enjoy the veterans' tournament because you can just be a player again. We have only been back from Thailand for about a fortnight and it was good this year. We won it! England beat Scotland in the final.

“Calendar wanted me to go into the TV studios and do a live interview about it but I had spent enough time away from the family and work. I was catching up with things so I couldn’t make it.

"But then I’m not really all that comfortable with the publicity and that side of things so it was probably for the best.”