In the old days there was the opportunity for a smaller club to do well, which in turn would increase the clubs fan base and revenue securing future successes. Where money has always played a part, there'd always been a more significant level of competition. Each club in any given league would have a decent shot of making some sort of impact, and the "big" clubs weren't invulnerable like they appear to be now. Can you see the scum, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal getting relegated any time soon? Not even slightly. The scum were still winning stuff throughout Leeds' most successful period, but what happened when we won the league in 74? They got relegated. We would be relegated within a decade. Would that ever happen to a top club now? No.
From the other side, a newly promoted club would have a chance to do something other than look like relegation candidates. I'm pretty sure there have been cases in the past where a second tier club went up and immediately won the top flight. That wouldn't happen now because the financial gap is far too large. It's not about money having no effect, it's about the increasing size of the gap between the top clubs and lower clubs, and the increasingly less competitive premier league. The league dubbed as the "most exciting league in the world" is a ****ing joke. It's not exciting at all, unless you count having 6 or 7 clubs fighting against relegation right until the last day every season.
There is a chance a big five club can be relegated - if they get themselves into a mess. Man U and Liverpool both had FAMOUS blips when they were relegated, and everyone know about those. Still extremely rare.
The Premier League is more competitive than ten or 15 years ago.
There has always been an "order" in football, in which clubs usually fit. I admit that it is harder to break out of this order now than ever, but it is possible with money - Man City (let's not forget they were in League One within the last 15 years), Fulham, Wigan, QPR, and for a short while Hull all did this - OR without - for instance, Barnsley's only top flight season was during the Premiership era, and Swansea and Blackpool haven't been there for years.
Regarding winning things, yes this is even more difficult, particularly the Premier league. But even the League Cup is taken more seriously these days, and is usually won by a top five team (although, let's not forget who won it last year). But the pressure on the big five to reap as many trophies as possible means they do everything in their (considerable) power to monopolise these competitions. And yes, some of the referee decisions that go in their favour are very questionable.
But even back in the day, clubs like Derby and Forest only succeeded because they had an exceptional manager. They were considered over-achievers. So yes, I agree that money in the game has made it less competitive at the very top level, but since I support Leicester, that doesn't affect me!
When they talk about it being the most exciting league in the world, I believe they are referring to the tempo at which our game is played. So I wouldn't say this refers exclusively to the top flight either. By the way, journalists and pundits used to say it was the best league in the world, but then we didn't win the Champion's League for years so demoted the claim somewhat!
I think the Championship is among the most competitive leagues in the world. At the minute, only nine points separate 4th and 21st place, an amount that could be overturned in three matches! It's also very unpredictable. You never know if you're going to get hammered or hand out the hammering in this league (see our matches against Derby and Millwall for evidence). I shall miss it when we get promoted...for about a week.
