[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

No wonder most clubs beneath the top six can't get a reliable goalscorer for love nor money. If you've had one decent season and banged a few in, hey presto, you've earned yourself a transfer to a "big club" where you'll never be seen again. If you're a teenager and just have the potential to bang a few in, you can earn yourself a transfer to a "big club" where you'll never be seen again. No work ethic required. Money for nothing and chicks for free. So we're all reduced to scrabbling after the unknown mercenaries looking to prove themselves (hoping they've actually got the talent to score for a while before they do one) and the 25-year-old has-beens who've been chewed up and spat out after three years in the Chelsea or Man City reserves (hoping they still care enough about football to lower themselves to scoring for us, even though there's literally nothing in it for them beyond more money to add to the mountain).

To be honest, I don't blame the players, because most didn't grow up in luxury, and you'd have to be as mental as they come to turn your nose up at easy money which could see you and your family sorted for generations to come (though my sympathy is inevitably tested to the limit when I read about some ex-pro who's declared bankruptcy after betting five million quid on a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos). But it's rotting the game from the inside out, and only getting worse. It wasn't this bad even five years ago. I dread to think what kind of sport we'll be watching by the end of the decade.