There's no time-out in football. I took one anyway.

The one where I explain why nothing has happened here for ages.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

When I launched the Unmodern Football project, I set myself the goal of publishing one piece a week for the first year. That didn’t seem overly ambitious at the time: I had a list with well over 50 ideas for texts and topics. I’ve been writing professionally for years (in advertising and as a published author). Writing is in my blood. And despite a full-time job, a relationship, and a dog, I usually have half an hour in the evening. Most of my hobbies are fairly passive. What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing, at first. From April to September, the plan went beautifully. And then life happened. Nothing bad – quite the opposite. But I had underestimated just how much work change is, even when it’s positive.

Without going into too much detail: I’ll be shifting my main place of residence soon. My wife and I are merging our households across two countries. And on top of the logistics of these moves, there’s also a huge, huge bureaucratic load involved – for various reasons – the extent and impact of which I admittedly underestimated a bit beforehand. Especially since I’m still working full-time throughout all this. It’s all lovely and, comparatively speaking, a luxury problem – but it still costs one thing above all: energy.

Long story short: physically and mentally, there’s been barely any room for anything other than keeping things going since September, and that left no space for Unmodern Football. Right now, I simply don’t have the energy for it. Just last year, I went through a burnout phase, and lately the warning signs have been softly knocking at the door again.

So I pulled the emergency brake: this is a break. It’s not like there are thousands of people out there waiting for a new piece to drop. And the 1-post-a-week rhythm was something I imposed on myself. I enjoyed it, I’ve enjoyed it up until now, and before I risk losing the joy, I’m hitting pause.

That said, a few messages have come in asking if everything’s okay, so I just wanted to quickly say: yes, everything’s fine. This is just a pause.

Of course I could’ve just fired up ChatGPT, like 50% of the writers on Substack do. But I’ve actually written every single piece here myself. That’s a standard I hold myself to. I started this project, among other reasons, because I enjoy writing. Yes, of course I use ChatGPT – but mainly for research or translation. And occasionally I’ll let it tidy up a passage – that’s what the tool’s there for. But if my name’s on something, it matters to me that I’m actually in it.

(Funny story in that context: a few weeks ago, I was doing some work research on a football topic and used Deep Research in ChatGPT. ChatGPT spat out “data” that confirmed my hypothesis. When I clicked on the source, I discovered the “data” came from one of my own texts on Unmodern Football. More precisely: from a passage in a piece that was clearly just my personal opinion. That pretty much sums up AI in 2025.)

So, what’s next? At the very least, a break until early 2026. And beyond that? I’m not sure yet. Will I stick with the current direction? Will there be a content shift? That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Either way: it will continue. Soon. Right here. Until then – all the best, merry Christmas, and a happy new year.