The rich get richer.

...not to forget the adverse effect that the Premiership has had on the development opportunities  of young English players -- look at the state of our national first XI.


Interesting that ultra-capitalist USA has a 'socialist' approach to keeping its major sporting leagues more competitive and sharing the money around more evenly (albeit only at the top levels).   The worst team from last season's NFL or NBA has first dibs on the best players from the new season's draft of up and coming players.

They regulate in some semblence of fairness, for the sake of competition.     Our top clubs took Murdoch's shilling and said 'sod the minnows'.    Hard to love any of the diving, poncing, partying bunch.

Quoted from BIGChris

the money that leaves the game in players & agents pockets. I know it is difficult (and too late) to enforce a salary cap but nobody should be earning £100k+ per week. A top player should be on £10k per week tops imo

I know what you mean and I definitely agree, but with that many professional clubs (110 or so?) the gulf in pay between those at the bottom and those at the top would be tiny.I'm not in any way saying players in the premiership deserve £300,000 per week. No one deserves £300,000 per week- very few people deserve £300,000 per year. But if those at the very top of the game earn £10,000 per week and those at the very bottom - like our players now - earn about £1,000 a week, it's hardly representative of the higher calibre they've attained.

As an arbitrary figure, I'd say £100,000 per year at the very top of the game is about what I'd expect to be reasonable. Roughly what a very good CEO in a good business should earn. Those at the bottom would be on minimum wage. A little bit like that occasionally mooted idea that the highest earner in a company should earn no more than 10 times that of the lowest.

Quoted from Gary Haddock

Yes.

FA cup and league cup proves every season that the premier league clubs can be beaten.  

Yeah which is why we regularly have the FA cup final and League cup final contested between two championship clubs because they're just as good as the premier league teams...

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

So we're all in agreement that some teams are better than Town but only because they're rich and successful.

As for the romance of following a lower league team, I remember going up to Hartlepool on a cold miserable Friday night and we may have been beaten 8-1 but with the camaraderie of my fellow fans, the 'carnival atmosphere' that they generated and the feel that it was proper football that really mattered it was still absolutely flipping dreadful.

I was at that game and you are right, it was flipping miserable. Just about the worst experience i have had following Town and it was so cold that i didn't thaw out 'til about half way home.



I neither want nor expect us to compete with Premier League sides. I just think, also in life in general, the wealth should be more fairly distributed and old established clubs not left to go to the wall for the sake of about a weeks wages for some players.

Quoted from mariner91

Yeah which is why we regularly have the FA cup final and League cup final contested between two championship clubs because they're just as good as the premier league teams...

Forgot Liverpool V Cardiff league cup final last season?

Quoted from Gary Haddock

Forgot Liverpool V Cardiff league cup final last season?

[img]http://robinbrown.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/facepalm-500x4001.jpg[/img]

Quoted from nickmariners

...not to forget the adverse effect that the Premiership has had on the development opportunities  of young English players -- look at the state of our national first XI.

I seem to recall our national team being embarrassed just before the Premier League started too.