Football: Chelsea can provide winning answer

ALL WEEK Japanese soldiers have been staggering out of the south- east Asian jungle asking: "Is it really over? Has Nicolas Anelka finally left Arsenal?" So the joke goes, except if there really were Japanese World War Two soldiers emerging from the rainforest they would actually be asking questions like: "Has Roy Keane signed a new contract? How does Mark Bosnich look in goal?" and "Where can I buy the new away kit?"

No one it seems, in this red-devilled summer, can have avoided the reach of Manchester United plc. A raft of flagging institutions, from the Queen and her Government to celebrity magazines and the Murdoch press, were to be found seeking glamour and sales by association with football's biggest brand. Even Vanity Fair and American Express have fallen prey to their allure.

With each wedding and knighthood, photograph and headline, adding to the legend United have continued to expand their empire during the summer "break". Having conquered Europe in May the targets are global on both fiscal and footballing fronts. The tour of Australia and China paved the way for the opening of megastores and Red Cafes from Dubai to Jakarta, it also began an unprecedented season of travel which will take in Japan, for the Intercontinental Cup, and Brazil for the World Club Championship.

Heavens. United are even in hyperspace having set up their own internet service provider while this week their savings account was named as the best of the new building society football accounts.

Where will it end? Well, while Martin Edwards and Sir Alex Ferguson cast their eyes from the Pacific to the Atlantic they could find their domestic hegemony overthrown. Abstaining from the FA Cup (the subsequent fuss was much ado about nothing - was Arsenal's 1998 win devalued because they did not beat United on the way?), uninterested in the Worthington Cup and defeated in the Charity Shield the only likely trophy is the championship and the competition is stronger than for several years. There is a real chance that this could be the first season since the Premiership was created that United do not finish in the first two.

Arsenal and Chelsea will lead the uprising with Leeds close behind.

Outside bets include Liverpool and Newcastle but it is hard to imagine their expensively refurbished teams settling quick enough to be serious contenders.

Leeds could be undone by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's eager response to Atletico Madrid's gilded entreaties but the capital challenge should be a prolonged one. Arsenal have lost Anelka but gained two potent forwards, some useful fresh blood in defence, and still turned a pounds 5m profit. Chelsea have also bought shrewdly although the return to fitness of Gustavo Poyet could be as significant as any new arrival.

There is much of interest elsewhere in the Premiership. Is West Ham's Joe Cole as good as we think? Will George Graham regret not over-hauling his forward line? Who is the real John Gregory, the assured leader of the autumn or the bewildered one of spring? Can Wimbledon survive the loss of Joe Kinnear - or will Egil Olsen's style of football prove fatally anachronistic? Can Gazza, and Paul Ince, come back? Will the Moroccans, Youssef Chippo and Mustapha Hadji, finally lift Coventry from the twilight zone? Can Sunderland, Bradford and Watford survive?

The last question is a serious issue. Only Middlesbrough, by dint of heavy spending, have survived of the last six teams to be promoted and each of the new trio look vulnerable though Sunderland at least have the resources to save themselves. Should even two go down, while the likes of Blackburn, Nottingham Forest and Charlton return, it will be further evidence that the gap between the Carling Premiership and Nationwide Football League is too great.

Not that such evidence is needed, nor heeded, by those who can make the difference. The League is reasonably bullish about the future but while Chester and Portsmouth have emerged from receivership this summer, and all divisions are receiving more income than ever before, Crystal Palace and Luton remain on the critical list and the gulf is widening for everybody.

The First Division looks set for an interesting season with Forest, Blackburn, Fulham and Manchester City entering a division which already contained Wolves, Birmingham, Ipswich, Norwich, QPR and West Brom. Best wishes to Walsall.

Lower down there is less to enthuse. While the Premiership clubs have spent pounds 125m between them this summer only pounds 1.4m of that has gone to the Second and Third Divisions. They have thus spent an average pounds 50,000 each with only Reading and Wigan, both backed by millionaires, laying out more than pounds 150,000 on a single player.

Without such a backer the dream of rising through the divisions is effectively dead and, while the football will be terrible, that is why we must hope Wimbledon survive.

Most of that pounds 125m has gone abroad as the number of foreigners in the Premiership reaches 10 per club - twice as many at Liverpool. While English players are not immune to greed the antics of Anelka, Hasselbaink and, before them, Pierre van Hooijdonk shows the risk of buying abroad. Not that we should disparage the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp and Dwight Yorke who have done so much to make our game better. The problem is many of the new signings are relatively unknown and few will turn out to be a Yorke.

In time this will impact on England - it will be interesting to see if Jody Morris can retain a place at Chelsea - but forget that for a moment, Kevin Keegan has enough to worry about. There is a genuine prospect of next summer's European Championship featuring dozens of English League players but no Englishmen. Just desserts, perhaps, for the FA's craven submission to the power barons of the Premier League at its creation, but harsh on the rest of us.

While on the subject of the power brokers this observer is behind David Dein's crusade against agents but finds his protestation that they are taking "obscene" amounts of money out of the game a bit rich coming from a man whose investment in Arsenal is now worth pounds 30m. At least, unlike some directors, he is a genuine fan, perhaps another Arsenal supporter, Kate Hoey, could address the question of a windfall tax on football's fat cats and an Offoot regulatory body - preferably one with the power to prevent Peter Johnson owning both Everton and Tranmere.

Sadly, despite cabinet ministers queueing up to display their footballing allegiance, that is about as likely as England winning the European Championships. So maybe, like them, we should just sit back and enjoy a season which, for all the game's faults, still promises much. It might just be the season in which Chelsea win their first title for 45 years; Leeds win their first cup for 28; Joe Cole becomes England's youngest player this century, beating Michael Owen's record, and Yeovil finally get into the League.