In my early days at West Ham, there was a game everyone wanted to play in.
Obviously we dreamed of playing against Manchester United, Spurs or the like in the FA Cup final, with a title winner or in front of a crowded Upton Park.
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Harry Redknapp, second from left in the first row, says West Ham players loved playing an Essex amateur team for free shoes and believes money changed the modern gamePhoto credit: Mirrorpix
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Redknapp believes money has changed football and claims the European Super League proved itPhoto credit: Rex
But what we were looking forward to almost as much was a pre-season game against a team from the Essex Business League.
The Bata Shoes factory team had a beautiful spot and every year we played them in a warm-up game … and got a pair of browns and a pair of blacks.
Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, all of them wanted to play all along because we knew we’d make new shoes out of them.
Anyone hurt would say, “Harry, see if you can get me a pair of nines, slippers, if you can, mate.”
It was a really big deal, one of our biggest games of the year!
Don’t forget that the guys who won the World Cup only got £ 1,000 each – but it was a different world.
It wasn’t like now, when some guys collect £ 100,000 a week and can barely tie their own shoelaces.
Then we would get a 10 pound chicken – not a turkey – from West Ham for Christmas and we would be delighted.
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Back then, the clubs were owned by local business people. When I played, the chairman owned a wooden yard 200 meters from the stadium.
It was Reg Pratt, the Cearns family, or Terry Brown-West Ham fans who grew up supporting the club.
These days, West Ham’s David Sullivan and David Gold and Tony Bloom in Brighton are probably the only ones in this category.
The rest are almost all foreign business people with no real affection for the club, no love of the place – it’s all about money.
If you think differently, you’re kidding. And if an outlier meant the chance to make millions out of Asian or Far Eastern television rights, what then?
They think about their club, their investment and nothing else. Not the fans, not other clubs, just pound signs.
So I had a small smile when the 14 who weren’t invited to the proposed Super League all started.
If any of them had been asked, they would surely have jumped on it.
If someone had said, “Wait a minute, Man City is out, we’re looking for someone else,” everyone would have put their hands up.
While the ESL may have fallen apart because of the fans, there will always be something, it will always be about the bottom line.
Remember, a few years ago there was talk of playing a game overseas.
Then it would have been two, then five, then half a season in China, America, everywhere.
It’s about owners seeing their investment grow. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it. The fans don’t come into the equation for her.
While people say they want to get rid of John Henry, the Glaser or whoever, the days of someone like Blackburn’s Jack Walker walked in are long gone.
You have to be a billionaire, not a millionaire, to own a club – and most of them are foreigners.
I heard Jamie Carragher speak so passionately and said Henry shouldn’t be allowed to go back to Liverpool, but even if someone else bought it, it would be a business, not because they care.
Look at Bury as they went down. There are Premier League clubs in the area that could have helped, it would have cost them next to nothing, but no one got in touch.
There is no interest in anyone other than yourself. Every owner is, especially at this level – it’s all about their club and nothing else.
In the end, of course, they are just the administrators, the club will be there long after they die.
But it will always only be about the balance sheet and the profits – even if it won’t come from a breakaway Super League.
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