£100,000,000...£500,000...two figures those interested in the football world are becoming increasingly familiar with. Whatever you're doing right now, stop, and just say to yourself "£500,000...", then say "per week...".

A little too far

I was thinking what on earth anyone could do with this amount of money - a completely disproptionate amount, even by footballing standards. It makes me feel sick to think that I have to PAY my amateur club a tenner everytime I want to kick a ball around a cut-up pitch on a brisk Saturday afternoon. How can anyone justify that amount of money, unless they're a superhero single-handedly saving the world and perhaps sorting out today's financial crisis, or is that "alleged" financial crisis if you're the owner of a certain blue Mancunian football club. Unfortunately, Kaka is not a superhero. He's just a footballer, in case anyone needed reminding.

Where does this leave other teams?

As usual, these occasions give Monsieur Wenger another opportunity to moan, but on this occasion, you'd have to agree with him.

"It leaves Arsenal where we are. That means we spend the money we produce and we make.

"We are in a world where we live from three kinds of income - gate receipts, the sponsors and the television money. That is the real world of football.

"The rest is exceptional and is not the rule of our world. It is a special income with unlimited resources, but it is not the real world."

Almost makes you feel sorry for him. But where does this leave Arsenal? I commend Wenger on signing relatively unknown talent and nuturing them into fine team players, but he's always lacked the financial muscle to mix it up with Chelsea, Man Utd and Chelsea, that extra something that will give his team the consistency they so desperately need. The purchasing power of Man City is just another thing for him to worry about. I'm not saying signing the best players will buy success - as we've seen, it doesn't. But what if Man City pull off the biggest transfer in history and sign Kaka? What if they continue to sign world-class players on obscene wages? What if they come for Arsenal's finest? Does this make them a feeder club for the "exceptional" clubs?

With a foreign interest with seemingly bottomless pockets showing an interest in the English game, the footballing world could be slowly heading this way.