George Bernard Shaw once asked a woman at a dinner party if she would go to bed with him for £1,000. She blushed and shook her head. He then asked if she would go to bed with him for £10,000 and she curtly replied "No I would not". He then suggested £50,000, and the colossal sum made the woman pause and say, "perhaps". Then GBS said "and for £5?" Angrily, the subject of his goading retorted "What sort of woman do you think I am?" to which he delivered the classic line "We have already established what kind of woman you are, we are merely haggling over the price". This anecdote, although more myth than truth, now sums up the current state of Premier League football and in particular John Terry's total silence as Citeh up the anti. With sums of money like never before being thrown at players, the saying everyone has a price is now going to be put to the test and we will soon find out if John Terry is going to keep his title of "Mr Chelsea".

For Chelsea it is now the hunter being the hunted, the indignant riposte from the Chelsea staff is now being mocked the breadth of the country, the "little chats" that the Chelsea management had with rival clubs’ players who were then under contracts pails into significance compared to the "Eastland's Carpetbaggers" who now just double the stakes until even the strongest clubmen weaken!

However for me the reported £175,000 a week being paid to Adebayor is the more serious problem, as there are dozens of players at many clubs who will be angling for a pay rise. Torres must be thinking "If he is worth 175K then I know I am a 250K a week man" and so it will go on. The Adebayor deal could be the torpedo that finally scuppers the Premiership because now unless you allow your football club to become the plaything of a family that owns a third of the oil or gas reserves in the Middle East or has huge Russian gas money, in a couple of years you will be out of the running for winning the Premiership. There is probably a 1-2 year window to win the top domestic honour before Citeh, with or without Hughes, take over - probably season 2010 - 2011 when after the World Cup Capello becomes the light blues manager for about 25 million a year.

This would be a suitable time for Mr. Ferguson to announce his retirement because being the second best in the country is one thing, but second best in your own city that would be too much for a man so used to getting his own way. Even Sir is crying foul, and that is rich coming from a man who thought nothing of paying 30 million for Rooney as Everton buckled under the weight of the money being offered for a teenage player who had from birth been a member of the blue half of Liverpool.

I have been quite relaxed about Arsenal's decline that started shortly after Chelsea became a toy for Abramovich. If you cannot compete financially you must find another way and Wenger has had another way forced on him by our financial constraints. AW's blueprint, coupled with more fans’ involvement is the right way because most fans do not want Usmanov or his Gazprom wealth, so we have to stay together, nurture the youth, find the odd star here and there and wait for more clubs to suffer like Newcastle and Leeds, before a stricken FA finally realizes that enough is enough or the Sheiks get fed up with winning the Premiership every year.

This is the financial hurricane that Wenger spoke of, although more money than ever will be thrown at winning the title it will come from only a couple of clubs and the bulk will come from Man City. Chelsea's claim that they will be self sufficient in so many years is so unrealistic it is more like a Gordon Brown statement.

The complaint by Fergie that the market has gone crazy is like an arsonist starting a fire and not checking which way the wind is blowing. Citeh are not just raising the stakes they are doubling everything and then some, and this time even ‘old red nose’ cannot ask to see what Citeh have because to do that they will have to pay money that even the Glazers cannot find!