Adam, you can support a particular club and still have an interest in what else is going on in the game. And while you are correct that many players have no connection with the area their club represents, you still get those who come through the club academy and are very much a part of the area - Marcus Rashford is a prime example, and before him, Steven Gerrard - and as a result have a special place in fans' hearts. My team, Coventry City, is just about holding position above the Championship relegation places, and if nothing else, I am following closely the results of the other clubs immediately above and below. They are still my team despite the club's disastrous ownership by a hedge fund, who I sometimes think is controlled by Spurs supporters getting their revenge for their Cup Final defeat in 1987. Having spent quite a few years in West London I also follow Brentford's promotion push, and having a friend of many years who is a Grimsby supporter, I am also watching to see how the Colchester-Southend game you mention pans out. And there is always interest in seeing the relative positions in the table of Wimbledon and MK Dons.....Back in the 1970s I was overnighting for work reasons in a Cotswold hotel the night Liverpool first won the European Cup, and everyone in the hotel was rooting for the English team. Two years ago I was in a sports bar in Malta watching Tottenham and Liverpool qualify for the Champions League final, and most of the others there were enjoying the games without necessarily having any particular affiliation to either club. In both cases, football was bringing people together. For you idea of a salary cap to work, it would have to be on a worldwide basis, and it is a bit difficult to see the likes of the Chinese league or MLS in the USA agreeing to that, let alone La Liga in Spain. Besides, as already happens, unscrupulous agents would soon find a way round it with sales of image rights and the like. One of the joys in recent years was Leicester City's title win, followed by a decent run in the Champions League, and for Europe's dodgy dozen to try and avoid something like that ever happening again is very sad; also they could be cutting off their noses to spite their faces as that sort of underdog performance probably generates more outside interest in the game than any number of so-called Classicos.
Richard Greenhough ● 2016d