FULL credit this week to the Premier League side who continue to give me heart as I become increasingly disenfranchised with life in the top tier of English football.

I guess this week’s offering will appeal to those of you who follow a Premier League side, which typically in these parts means Manchester United or Liverpool in my experience.

Fans of both those clubs are no doubt fairly positive, being that there has been plenty of transfer movement and cause for optimism ahead of the new season, now just over three weeks away.

However, spare a thought for the rest of us.

Most regular readers of this column will know where my allegiances lie, but in this instance who I support is an irrelevance, because I am by no means alone in being thoroughly depressed by life as a fan of one of the supposed elite clubs.

That makes me no different to another member of the sportsdesk who supports Everton, nor the one who supports Arsenal.

Arsenal have Champions League revenue, yet the heady combination of six years without a trophy, their two best players seemingly wanting out and a lack of a spending surge to match the Manchester clubs means Gunners fans are looking over their shoulders.

Every other year Arsenal fans seem to believe ‘this is the season’ but that belief has vanished. Even new signing Gervinho stated yesterday that Arsenal could be a title team in “one or two seasons.”

My club, like Everton, would love to have such problems. A taste of the Champions League has proved tantalising, like a chance to have the keys to the sweet shop for ten minutes knowing you are never likely to set foot in it again.

Because the bottom line is, it is no longer possible to enjoy true success without a billionaire owner.

It is no longer possible to expect even a modicum of loyalty from the player that your kid loves so much you spent £70 getting his name on the back of his replica shirt.

It is no longer possible to build a good side on a competitive budget and win the league because you have a superior manager and a loyal fanbase. It’s 30 years or more since the likes of Forest, Derby and Aston Villa broke the cartel and for two decades Everton’s financial foibles have seen them fall away from the giant they once were.

Perhaps that would be tolerable, supporting a team playing for fifth in the Premier League, if it was a pleasurable experience.

But it is far from it. Record ticket prices make going to games prohibitive and extremely costly and if my club did enjoy some realistic success, say, getting to the FA Cup final; it would be impossible to get a ticket because of the huge corporate clamour.

If anything sums up all that is wrong with top tier football, it’s the Club Wembley seats that perennially remain empty just after half time of any football match as people who don’t care enough to watch 90 minutes finish off their bumper lunch with a piece of cheesecake. Symbolically it means everything in terms of the sickening greed that embodies football in the top tier.

In all the furore surrounding News International in recent weeks it has never left my mind that because of the BskyB deal that created the Premier League, there hasn’t been a free to air ‘Division One’ game in approaching 20 years.

I don’t knock Chelsea or Man City for essentially removing hope from the lives of the rest of the PL clubs that they can progress and challenge for league titles, because I’d dearly love an oligarch to come and invest hundreds of millions in my club.

We hope and prey the new financial fair play regulations will change things, but somehow know for certain that they won’t.

The big worry is that this isn’t even a Premier League problem anymore. If Leicester don’t win the Championship with the money they’ve spent, something is seriously wrong. For big clubs with big aspirations like Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City, it must be a kick in the teeth. For fans of overachievers like Millwall and Doncaster, it must be tough to maintain any ambitions of taking that next step.

I often comment to Newport County fans how lucky they are to have such brilliant access to their team and on Saturday that went one step further with a reminder that there are still people at the top end of football who realise the importance of not alienating the next generation of fan.

Huge credit to Tony Pulis and his entire Stoke squad for the way they conducted themselves this weekend, signing hundreds of autographs and posing for countless photographs.

I’ve had a lovely letter from Griffithstown under-10s who acted as ball boys and from the sounds of things, will all be closet Stoke fans next term.

The likes of Jermaine Pennant sharing training tips with the kids and signing kit, photographs and everything else is a reminder of how powerful football can be for all the right reasons. Those kids are still excited about such an amazing day.

I believe it’s vitally important that we in the media highlight things like this, because too often the nice side of the modern day professional is overlooked.

The likes of Phil Neville who is the ultimate role model for football at the top end will barely get a column inch, because we are too busy scrutinising every detail of Ryan Giggs’ love life.

It’s a sad, sad situation and each and every day it’s getting more and more absurd.

I’ll no doubt be glued to my screen on August 31 watching the deadline day madness as Manchester City sign a £50 million striker and my club swoop for a player I’ve never heard of in an expensive loan deal designed to transform our fortunes.

Maybe it’ll even convince me to part with £500 to go to four or five games this season.

But what I will desperately try to do is remember the Stoke boys who put a smile on the face of several hundred kids at Newport County and the Newport YM this past weekend and remember that football does still have a soul.

A final word on the great just gone and the great just starting as the Open concluded and the biggest Test series in the world this year gets under way.

Apologies to any reader who followed my betting advice for the Open, though I am sure you can imagine my reaction at my 300-1 each way bet Raphael Jacquelin finishing a single stroke out of the money! But what a fantastic tournament with a worthy winner in Darren Clarke.

What surprised me is the shock at Clarke winning. The guy won two World Golf titles and at his peak was one of a handful of players who could hang with Tiger.

Clarke’s victory was reminiscent of Mark O’Meara winning his first major in his 40s and I wouldn’t bet against Clarke adding another major crown in the next couple of years. A genuinely lovely bloke, few would begrudge him, especially as he continues the trend of making Northern Ireland golf’s one and only superpower.

However, we have a while to wait until the USPGA and until then, the mouthwatering Test series against India.

At the moment the challenge posed by India far exceeds that of Australia and as such, this series is as big as the Ashes.

England arguably only have one national side to be truly proud of and after 20 years in the doldrums, this should be the crowning glory of a completely rejuvenated nation. I simply can’t wait.