Another few weeks and we are at it again. Friendlies, Mickey Mouse pre-season tournaments, millionth qualifying stage of the Champions League, the Community Shield and then the real thing.

Now if I was a betting man, I would put my money on one of the following clubs to win the Premiership - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool (the last-named being one of those silly bets, like your mum's birthday as a lottery choice). So it's one out of four, or more likely three.

Actually, I'm really tired of the so-called race for the Premiership when the reality is that it is no such thing. The best league in the world is nothing more than a mini-league gentlemen's club which is incredibly strict about membership, to the extent that the last time another team managed to infiltrate the clique was the 1994-5 season, when Blackburn Rovers donned a smart suit and tie and became all posh.

'The best league in the world is nothing more than a mini-league gentlemen's club which is incredibly strict about membership, to the extent that the last time another team managed to infiltrate the clique was the 1994-5 season'


And unless a club comes up with a sugar daddy as adept at spending money as my missus, then there is no chance of any of the clubs which are 'knocking on the door' joining the platinum set. Of greater concern, there is also zero chance of the likes of another Brian Clough miracle worker. The late and great Cloughie overcame a playing career tragically cut short by a crippling injury and a penchant for drinks that came out of glass dispensers, as opposed to cans, to make unfashionable Derby County and Nottingham Forest walk on water (in the case of County, it was actually to play on it at the old Baseball Ground).

In Clough's day, there was no big money available to buy the best of European and South American talent. So, instead of sauntering round Milan's exclusive branded shops, he rummaged around football's scrapheap and found former greats like Dave Mackay to build a team round. This was the art of managing at its very best, and although it is a poorish comparison, you do have to give Messrs Ferguson and Wenger credit for spotting young stars in the making who would become great players of their generation. With respect to Jose Mourinho, his ability in this department has not been tested at Chelsea, although I concede it most certainly was at Porto.

Which brings me onto the bigger European picture. Each season, more or less the same usual suspects turn up in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. So what does this tell us about European football in general? If the smaller, so-called less fashionable clubs rarely get a chance to showcase their talent on a bigger stage, how can you expect them to keep their main actors? After all, no-one wants to be doing Noel Coward in repertory theatre when you can play Lear at the Royal Shakespeare or even Cats in the West End.

This is all very sad. Hundreds of thousands of fans of Premiership clubs, good clubs which play good football, will be renewing their season tickets knowing full well they will either be playing to finish in the top ten if they are lucky or the bottom three if they are unlucky. And then you have the hundreds of thousands of fans in the Championship who are paying in the hope that if they manage to get out of the quicksand of that league, they will be able to stay afloat in the Premiership.

Clough, you will recall took his teams out of the quicksand to win the Premiership equivalent, and in the case of Forest, the European Cup as well. With respect to Reading and Steve Coppell, who did incredibly well last season, this feat will surely never be repeated in modern times.

This is not a socialist rant demanding equality in football. It's more of a warning that unless there is more equality of opportunity, then the product and brand will become fairly meaningless, for anyone other than fans of the gentlemen's clubs. We've had the discussion on Sportingo before about restricting the number of foreign players in the game. I actually don't think that is the solution, and nor should it be.

Maybe a better way of dealing with the issue is to put a cap on how much can be spent in the transfer market. If everyone is then equal in that department, then the skill shown by Clough, Wenger, Ferguson, Coppell and many others in nurturing talent will be a factor in determining which club is the best.

Having endless discussions about whether one of the big three or four is better than the other puts fans on a treadmill going nowhere. It's time to get real folks. Unless we have a real league where 10 of the 20 sides are in with a shout, we are stuck with the comedy known as The League of Gentlemen.