Big spending, Static premier league should heed warning of seria A

The first thing to understand is nothing is new in football; there is no invention, only innovation. Everything has been before and everything will be again. The second thing to understand is empires rise and fall. Everything comes to an end and there is no such thing as forever. Only then can what appears to be -- and only appears to be -- becoming of the Premier League (hint: it's not good) be put into context.

In the summer of 2000, Silvio Berlusconi was worried. The man who had bankrolled AC Milan's transformation from ailing giant to the world's pre-eminent superpower had never seen such a sustained challenge to his team's dominance. His club's fans were restless -- so restless, in fact, that Berlusconi used one of his private media channels to try to allay their fears. "Supporters can be assured," he said soothingly. "A big name will arrive soon."

The reason for Berlusconi's anxiety was that a few months earlier, Milan had been beaten to the Serie A title not by Juventus or Internazionale -- essentially, one of Italy's grand old houses -- but by cash-rich pretenders from the south. Lazio had won Serie A in the most dramatic of fashions -- snatching the crown from Juventus by a point on the final day. Milan had finished third, 11 points adrift.