So what next for the people's game, we dared to wonder last week as the elite of English football unveiled its plan to squeeze more pennies from its public at a time of national economic crisis?
Charging £15 to watch those games initially deemed by broadcasters to be the least attractive on offer appeared a fitting final move of a summer of paradoxes when clubs wrung their hands and bemoaned a hazardous future while spending a billion on transfers.
Alas no. Behind the scenes, the plot thickened and the plotters quickened their efforts to turn this crisis into some sort of a permanent advantage for those at the top of the Premier League.