Simon Inglis once wrote a brilliant book about Football League grounds across Britain, in which he gave romantic descriptions of the way the game used to be.

In the old days, football grounds were something to cherish. They were rather like the big, old mahogany tables our grandparents used to have. They stood there at the bottom of the road like a charming piece of antique furniture. You knew where they were and you loved them. The floodlights were somehow our childhood friends.

But in an age of greed and materialism, those grounds are now museum pieces. Arsenal used to play in the small fringe theatre that was Highbury. Well, hardly used to, since they only moved out at the end of last season. The old ground held 39,000 spectators in recent years but in the old wartime days, before seating became compulsory, the stands would comfortably accommodate 60,000.

Now, though, football is the multi-million pound industry most of us knew it would become – and Highbury is a property developer’s dream. As the area changes from football ground to luxury flats, the sound of fans cheering is already becoming a distant memory. The marble halls are just a faded souvenir from the Gunners’ glorious past.

This season Arsenal moved into their palatial new home at the Emirates Stadium -- not a million miles from their old ground. It’s as if a group of art students have just moved out of their bedsit and into a brand-new Docklands penthouse suite. The new stadium is named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history, worth approximately £100 million. The stadium is a sparkling new development with a 60,000 capacity, swanky kitchens and facilities to be proud of. What would the likes of Alex James and Eddie Hapgood make of it, I wonder?

Meanwhile, at Bolton, the changes have been dramatic. The Reebok Stadium is another example of state-of-the-art architecture. If Nat Lofthouse were asked for his considered opinion, the former England striker -- who later became coach, manager and finally president of his beloved club -- would inevitably give the thumbs-up. And not only because his 8oth birthday celebration was held there last year. Nat, the legendary Lion of Vienna, is undoubtedly missing the thousands of fans who rolled down to the old Burnden Park. But he knows as well as anybody that football has moved into the 21st century.