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What chance have Owls and Blades got?:SMITH ON SOCCER
WHAT chance have the rest got?
Robbie Keane 20 million? Carlos Tevez 32m? David Bentley 18m? Dmiitar Berbatov 35m?
For those of us that thought the world had gone mad when Brian Clough paid 1m for Trevor Francis from Birmingham City in 1979, it's almost too much to take in.
Of course they are all good players and will undoubtedly make a difference to their teams - although I'm not sure how much Robbie Keane will transform Liverpool.
But where does that leave mere mortals like Sheffield Wednesday and United, Barnsley and Doncaster?
Every new season seems to bring fresh divisions of wealth.
A few years ago the Sheffield clubs would have been in the second tier behind the big four plus Tottenham, Newcastle and Everton.
Now they must be in the sixth or seventh tier of spending power with four or five layers in the Premiership alone.
But it's too easy to bemoan the unfairness of it all.
Success has always bred success and United and Wednesday have enjoyed their days ih the sun.
It didn't always feel that way at the time but in the 1960s and 70s most First Division clubs were roughly, but not entirely, equal.
The difference between Wednesday and Manchester United for at least some of that time was one or two players, not one or two billion pounds.
That the top clubs have managed to amass such vast wealth is down largely to the way they have been run since then and especially during the late 1990s.
That's when the megabucks started to flow into the game, and the new order took shape.
Despite their best efforts neither Sheffield club could cling on without a Steve Gibson or Jack Walker to bankroll the step up
Now the concentration of money among the top five clubs in the country leaves the Premiership Romanoffs looking down on the starving peasants of the Football League.
Though it felt like madness at the time, we can only dream of the sort of equality that took Trevor Francis to a club like Nottingham Forest - then League Champions - for a British record transfer fee of 1 million.
Worse still, it's an absolute certainty that those days will never return.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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