I’m sitting in the Charles Dickens on Union St, enjoying a high quality glass of cider, while the first game of the new Premiership season is playing on the TV. And I realise my heart is sinking.
After all these years of avid interest, after all that hope and disappointment, I find myself thinking ‘oh, that circus again’. I think it was the great Bale transfer controversy which finally pushed me too far. The idea that anyone could even think about a value for one person of 100 million euros – it’s not a world I want to be part of any more. Success in football has for a long time depended on the depth of pockets rather than anything else. I’m not a fan of the way money buys power in the rest if life – so why in football?
So though I still love sport, I can’t connect any more with this financial arm-wrestling which is the sub-text of every Premiership match. So Spurs will have to manage without me from now on (I’m sure it’ll break AVB’s heart). Enjoy, those of you who do. It’s a more interesting form of capitalism than share prices, after all. But count me out.
The Commonwealth of Heaven 
Of course, professional football players can have very short careers; so perhaps a better payment regime would be a reasonable salary (£100,000 to £200,000 per year?), plus an annuity (guaranteed lifetime income), plus donations to charities of the footballer’s choice (sports charities? disabled charities? elimination of crippling diseases like polio or malaria?). Then the competition would revolve around the charity donations, which could lead to interesting enrichment at half-time.
As a rugby supporter I couldn’t agree more but sadly the money game is beginning to make itself known in professional rugby. If the money talk has put you off Spurs you can always try Crystal Palace just up the road from Croydon – they never seem to have any money.