So recently the Premier League shelved plans to introduce a Football League style play off for the fourth spot in the Champions League. The backers and detractors of such an idea could not have been any less predictable. The big four like a reverse man from Del Monte all resoundingly said no. Its loudest supporters were unsurprisingly Harry Redknapp and Martin O’Neill, who manage sides that have not been able to go that extra mile for a trip to football’s promised land. The oligarchy of four however were oddly enough joined by Fulham and Birmingham who you would have thought to have fancied themselves to sneak a place should the idea have seen the light of day.

While Villa and Spurs can be considered Champions League bridesmaids, Everton are the bride who failed to live happily ever after in wedded bliss after an early exit from the Champions League in 2005. David Moyes in all ‘once bitten twice shy’ cynicism stated that "While it might be quite exciting, we play 38 Premier League games and that is where you should be judged… say it is Tottenham who finish fourth after an unbelievable season and they get beaten by a team who finish seventh, having worked so hard?"

Arsene Wenger, manager of a side that have finished fourth for three seasons out of four also poured scorn stating that "If Stoke finishes fourth, it does not devalue the Champions League at all. It is down to where you finish. I believe you have to accept the best four play in the Champions League – that does not mean it has to be the same.” Though of course it usually isn’t Stoke who finish fourth and while this season one of the big four oligarchy has a struggle on its hands, it usually is the same four. Where this season Liverpool may quite possibly lose their spot there is every chance they shall be replaced by swaggering loadsamoney Manchester City, rather than any of the Premiership’s dustmen like Stoke.

Wenger also complains that if a play off should decide the spoils at the top end, then why not the bottom end? Well those old enough to recall that the original idea of the Football League play offs over 20 years ago will remember it also involved one team from the division above fighting off relegation. As a concept of footballing drama it didn’t disappoint. In its first season there was a replayed play off final in which Charlton stayed up at the expense of Leeds after two goals from the unfortunately named Peter Shirtlift. In the final year in which this guise of the play offs existed we also had the joy of seeing Chelsea relegated by promoted Middlesbrough nearly two years after the latter nearly ceased to exist. The Chelsea fans’ ungracious handling of defeat led to a mass riot at Stamford Bridge after losing the second leg of the play off final in 1988 and this went some way toward the Football League removing the relegation element. However that joy of seeing a side fight for its survival among the elite is a notion that can be replicated here with the Champions League play off.

In fact the excitement it may generate is not questioned by any of the major players involved, particularly West Ham’s David Gold who stated ‘there was a feeling in the room that a play-off could make the league more exciting and bring more clubs the possibility of getting into Europe… but the Premier League is the most exciting league that the world has ever known and no one is looking to damage that’. So Gold had acknowledged there were integrity issues limiting an increasing in the maximum excitement of the Premiership product, however when involved with Birmingham City he was an ardent fan of the Game 39 plan. He had never believed that while the Premiership was the richest league the world has ever known, there were limits regarding integrity when it came to increasing its profitability.

There was also the notion on time restraints on fitting in this play off system, however a one legged semi and a one legged final both at neutral grounds would merely add one week on the calendar. If certain sides swap their tour of the Far East or the US for somewhere closer to home then why can’t the Premiership start one week earlier? Gold is correct however in recognising that the Premiership has never had it so good when it comes to global coverage, however he and the rest of the major players in the Premiership would do well to remember that they cannot be either arrogant or complacent in thinking that while it has experienced a fruitful 18 years, it will always be this good.

A symbol of how far football has come since the Premiership can be seen in an episiode of ‘Auf Weidershen Pet’ from 1986. Bricklayer Oz, played by Jimmy Nail, on meeting his estranged son had asked him which football team he supported in the hope he would say Newcastle. His son’s reply was that he was a Chicago Bears fan. English football you see had been very unfashionable post-Hillsborough, the NFL in contrast had all the glitz and glamour. Despite this scores of kids from the provinces watching teams of butch men in crash helmets with outlandish names like the Boston Stranglers or the Miami Sound Machine on Channel 4 belongs to another era altogether. Equally there is no guarantee in the next 18 years that Kuala Lumpar or Bangkok will be full of United or Arsenal fans and one thing that can sure guarantee the demise in global popularity for the EPL is the stale predictability of a perpetual big four year in, year out.

Arsene Wenger is however right in stating that there is something wrong that a team in 7th place can get a foothold in European Football’s elite. Also while it may be the best thing for the Premiership as a whole, being a fan and writer in a fanzine of a side that has held a place in the Champions League for 11 seasons, why should I even entertain this idea? Well firstly though the play off idea is a start it’s far from the solution I believe would truly revamp the Premiership. And those reactionary Gooners that see everything from a one eyed Arsenal perspective may also be the ones bemoaning the fact we’ve won nothing for the last five years and don’t see coming fourth as an achievement.

Last year on this website I wrote an article which advocated that the FA Cup winners take a spot in the Champions League and this is a view I still believe in. However I have gone a step even further than that. The plan I advocate now is that only the first and second placed sides should be assured of a Champions League Spot, the third should go to the FA Cup winners. The fourth spot should be taken by the winners of a play off between 3rd, 4th, 5th and the winners of the Carling Cup.

Though Wenger’s team has achieved much by consistent top four finishes few would disagree that it needs to win a trophy, any trophy, to attain its full rites of passage. Many forget that the foundations of George Graham’s side which threw off years of mediocrity was not from high placed finishes in the League, as Arsenal had only finished in the top four once in the previous five years. It had come in the League Cup runs of ’87 and ’88 and even winning both the Wembley International Tournament and Mercantile Credit Centenary Cup in late 1988 had their small part to play.

The great Brian Clough had once stated that the reason he took the Simod Cup seriously is because of the boost it gave his side in winning in it, as he believed that form could not be turned on and off like a tap. Wenger has sacrificed the cup competitions in recent years and seen cup defeats subsequently affect his team’s confidence and progress in the all important Premiership and Champions League. Despite this, the goalposts have shifted and the value of the Cups in terms of football economics have lessened, therefore his cup policy can’t be seriously derided by his detractors. The answer in response to this is to give the cups more importance with regard to Champions League qualification. If tiredness from pursuing the cups affects league progress, at least there would be the safety net of a play off place. For entertainment’s sake there needs to be a shift of emphasis away from seeing finishing fourth as more important than winning a trophy, both within Arsenal Football Club and the Premiership as a whole.