[lokken]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

Dramatically different leagues really. There are only 32 teams in a country with 300 million people. The way college football works etc. There's no realistic out for them either whereas the big european clubs could quite easily say "**** you fifa/uefa/fa" and form a super league

Well these are just examples of how leagues have been competitive. What I am saying is that everyone needs to sit down and come to a better solution than what we have now because I'm not sure the premier league. We need a different way of running football, at least in England, if not globally and to simply defend the way it is now. I mean, when a club like Barcelona keep quiet about their kids because English clubs will pay ridiculous amounts to poach their talent, I think we have a problem when big clubs or top stature can't keep players because other clubs have ridiculous sums of money.

Spectators? The team that plays better football and loses? I'm sorry but you can't have your cake with "competitiveness" and eat it too.

All I'm asking for is a chance for teams to make it to the top of the tree, to actually give teams something to play for. I paid £15 to watch my team draw 0-0 at Villa but I didn't regret it at all, it was a great day out, a great point couple by some excellent Portsmouth defending and goalkeeping. Villa were a bit inept in terms of their finishing but that's their fault and not our problem. Villa played the better football but there was nothing unfair about the draw from their point of view, they just needed to be able score a goal. I've seen a 1-1 between Villa and Fulham where both sides weren't even defensive they were just rubbish and that was far far worse than what I saw on Sunday.

I meant your view about teams spending money et cetera not quality of football.

I just think if you had a more level playing field financially, we'd be more back to the premiership of the mid to late 90's which had great attacking football where teams attacked beyond reason because everyone believed they could win any game in the top flight but now the gap is so massive it's just not the case any more and teams have to do everything just to close that gap and in the current climate, I think this is justified. Our foreign players were generally brought in to be killer, not filler.

The current system is producing more of the kind of football you hate but while the distribution of cash is how it is, there's not a lot of alternative for clubs either in terms of playing to make money, or playing not to lose it. If teams were at a level where they could win games by attacking, then I'd be behind it 100% but lets face it they aren't so they play differently. Chelsea are playing the way they are because considering the stupid levels of short term investment, the only acceptable return can be trophies, so they play as efficiently as possible. I think even diehard Chelsea fans will admit that once they've got these trophies they would like to see their team play a more expansive style, but not before then because they've got a team built to play worldclass direct football and want to make the most of it.