The Leeds players who won the final First Division title in 1992 know how much the game has lost in the Premier League era
Manchester City pipped Manchester United on Sunday in an exciting climax to this year's 20th Premier League title. In praise of the revolution created by the formation of the Premier League in 1992 there have been seemingly endless commemorations of the best match, best player, best save, and even goal celebration.
Apart from Manchester United being involved in a nailbiting title chase, the current campaign seems almost unrecognisable from the last First Division title, 20 years ago. Where City's super-rich Arab owners have spent £930m, the entire squad of the 1992 champions – Leeds United – cost just £8m. City's Carlos Tevez is on £250,000 a week. Jon Newsome – the Leeds defender whose goal against Sheffield United helped clinch the title – took home £400.
The gruff South Yorkshireman Howard Wilkinson was the last English manager to win the game's top domestic honour, before the Premier League brought wall-to-wall Sky TV, fancy foreign players, multimillion pound wages, and billionaire owners. Last year I tracked down the Leeds title-winners; their stories told of the huge damage England's much hyped "best league in the world" had inflicted on our national game.
Wilkinson hauled Leeds from second bottom of Division Two to the summit of the top tier in just over three seasons. His hard-working soldiers mixed quality with the willingness to play at the absolute maximum of their limits. His feat is unthinkable now. Only a handful of super-rich clubs can win the Premier League and the gulf between them and the rest gets ever wider. While Wilko's triumph was funded by a moderately wealthy local businessman, Leslie Silver, who sold his paint company and risked his house to fund his teenage dream, today's campaigns are the preserve of oligarchs and offshore trusts. The struggle to catch up means clubs risk financial meltdown, as Leeds found 10 years after their title.
Wilko's players celebrated the championship by partying with fans in the city centre, young midfielder David Batty hanging out of the sunroof of his teammate's car. But now players are paid so much they are almost entirely disconnected from supporters, who must boggle at Thierry Henry's plans to demolish a beautiful £5.9m house to build an even larger property with a 40ft fish tank. Meanwhile, a generation associates football more with money than sport. Bemused Leeds defender-turned-postman John McClelland says: "Kids ask me, 'Have you got a Ferrari?'"
Money has flooded into the game but made multi-millionaires of average players at the fans' expense. In 1975 I could pay to watch Leeds out of my pocket money. Since 1992, rocketing prices have taken the game out of the reach of many. Even players who apparently benefited had troubling reservations. Gary Speed began as a YTS trainee and became an international manager, but he rued the switch from character-building hardship and rollickings to players paid so much they didn't care. Weeks before his suicide, his admission to me that 1991/92 was his happiest season now seems heartbreakingly poignant.
Of course, Premier League football is faster and more technical, and our stadiums are certainly more comfortable. But they're sterile. The Premier League was supposedly set up to benefit the national team, but England have plummeted since the 1990 World Cup semi-final. Our top players won't end up delivering our mail, but we've lost the community between fans and players, and much of the passion.
A heartbreaking but inspiring story came from defender Mel Sterland, who had to sell his title-winner's medal to provide for his family and whose terrible medical problems and attempted suicide can be traced back to an injury sustained in 1992. I asked him, if he'd have known the cost, would he have played those last few games when injured to help his team win the league. He replied in an instant: "100%. Definitely."
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