Dave Whelan, the Wigan chairman, will never forget the one and only time Roman Abramovich came to town. “He flew to the JJB stadium in his helicopter and landed in the yard just across the road,” said Whelan. “I offered to send a driver to pick him up but, no, he had his own bulletproof car.

“He’d sent two people during the week to examine the security of the stadium and drive there from where he was landing, to see whether there was any risk. And he wouldn’t eat anything, not even one of our pies, wouldn’t have anything to drink. When that Russian [Alexander Litvinenko] got poisoned . . . you knew why.”

Abramovich may have particular reasons for aloofness, but Whelan’s story feels symbolic. In the Premier League, there are “us” and “them”, the Big Four of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Abramovich’s Chelsea, and the other clubs, the “little 16”. The 16 beg for crumbs from the table of their betters, but the four won’t even dine in their company.

“Kevin Keegan’s dead right,” said Whelan referring to the Newcastle United manager’s comments after his team were defeated by Chelsea. Keegan said: “The league is in danger of becoming one of the most boring but great leagues in the world. The top four next year will be the same as this year. I don’t see what we can do about, do you?”

Recent history justifies Keegan’s remarks. Since Newcastle were third in 2002-3, only on one occasion, Everton in 2004-5, has a nonbig four club finished in the Premier League’s first four places. Newcastle, in 1996-97, were the last to finish in the top two. Keegan quit as Newcastle manager in the middle of that season and, now, back in the job, says “the brochure has changed. The destinations are different now.” The best a club like his can hope for, he opines, is fifth. The chances of winning a cup as consolation are limited. In the past 10 seasons the Big Four have won 28 major trophies. With United and Chelsea contesting the Premier League and in the Champions League final, they are about to make it 30. All the other clubs in England have won just five combined.

When someone from the “little 16” finds a good player, the Big Four simply buy them, as Liverpool are trying to do with Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry and United may do weeks with Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov and Wigan’s Antonio Valencia.

“Success equals revenue and revenue equals success,” said Professor Stefan Szymanski, one of the world’s leading sports economists, who is based at Cass Business School in London. The Premier League positions of United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are the same as their positions when the clubs are ranked by income.

The average earnings of the big four clubs is triple the average for the little 16. Newcastle, England’s sixth-richest club, have seen no increase in revenue in the past two seasons. However, in the same period Chelsea’s income went up £41.4m, Arsenal’s by £61.9m and United’s by £45.7m. Mind the gap? Mind the abyss, more like.

Keegan didn’t complain about finance when, between 1995 and 1998, Newcastle were England’s second-richest club and he broke the world transfer record to sign Alan Shearer for £15m. But while Manchester United’s money-making was always on a different level, back then only a few million pounds divided the incomes of the next five or six teams. Now, with Champions League entry worth £30m per season to the Big Four, football’s structure at European level promotes polarisation.

Whelan is last of the local magnates who once shaped the game by bankrolling their neighbourhood club, epitomised by his friend, Jack Walker, who “bought” Blackburn the title in 1994-5 by assembling England’s most expensive squad – at a cost of just £23.5m. The average cost of the big four’s current squads is £167m. Sunderland spent £40m just to stay up this season.

Some think Arsenal give wannabe clubs hope by demon-strating you can be in the Big Four without spending on the scale of United, Chelsea and Liverpool, but Arsenal’s squad is only cut-price compared to their rivals. The cost, £72m, is beyond almost any other club and though the wages of their players are not among the top 15 salaries in England, Arsenal use bonuses to reward their stars.

Thierry Henry picked up £10m for his final season there.

Whelan cannot imagine a nonBig Four club being champions again. The drama of today’s denouement makes Keegan’s complaints about Premier League tedium seem incongruous, but Whelan said: “Keegan meant ‘predictable’ rather than ‘boring’ . . . and predictable gets boring. Think of supporters of Aston Villa. A big club [but] they’re never going to break in. West Ham? No chance. Totten-ham? No, I don’t think they’ll do it either. Who’ll be the top four next year? We all know the answer. That’s not football.”

But is this right? The Icelandic owners of West Ham appear to have accepted the order of things and reigned in spending after an initial splurge that saw players such as Freddie Ljung-berg, Craig Bellamy and Lucas Neill arrive on Big Four wages. Mike Ashley has spent £234m just to get Newcastle back to mid-table health, the sports tycoon’s money going on buying the club, paying its debts and a middling transfer budget. Villa are part of the transatlantic sports empire belonging to Randy Lerner, but there is no sign the reclusive American is about to embark on a spree. Villa will have to try and improve by traditional methods, via a good manager, decent young squad and healthy fan base.

It is the route chosen by Everton. Their manager, David Moyes, was a young Celtic player when Sir Alex Ferguson splintered an even more established football hegemony by making Aberdeen Scotland’s first champion club from outside the Old Firm in 15 years. Moyes models himself on Ferguson and is a kindred spirit.

“In a lot of ways he [Keegan] is right, but I don’t want to believe it and I’m not going to accept it,” said Moyes. “I’m maybe a romantic, but hopefully it’s not all about money. Hopefully, it’s down to a bit of good management, good scouting, great supporters and not just finding a bloke out there who’ll come in, spend millions, and make everything better.” He points out Everton were challenging Liverpool up until March and feels that if his club can repeat their top-four finish of 2004-5 and get through the qualifying rounds into the Champions League group stage “with the money on offer we could change things”.

Ferguson and Wenger see Everton as the club most capable of breaking into the big four, citing Moyes’s policy of buying young, talented players of strong character and tying them down to long contracts. Everton plan on being in a 50,000-seat stadium by 2010 and keeping hold of Moyes for six years has been essential to their success. Among that which sets the Big Four apart is stability at the top: Ferguson, Wenger and Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez make up with Moyes the list of the four managers to have served most Premier League seasons with their clubs.

But can a team really crowbar itself into the elite by good practice alone? Tom Hicks, Liverpool’s co-owner, did not think so. He said there were two ways to own one of the top clubs, and both cost £450m. You could acquire one (£450m being what Hicks and his partner, George Gillett, spent to buy the club and fund the plans for the new stadium) or you could create one. He claimed that Abramovich, who paid £140m for Chelsea in 2003 and has since invested £300m in transfers, was far from his common portrayal as owner-hedonist. “I’ve seen Abramovich’s five-year spending plans and he is following them to the pound,” said Hicks.

“The gap is not only bridge-able, but was recently bridged by Chelsea,” said Szymanski. “They were well out of it a few years ago. The gap between big clubs and the others has been widening since the abolition of the maximum wage for players in 1960, but its progress is more glacial than many think.”

Spurs, 11th on Deloitte’s Football Money League of the richest clubs in Europe, look the likeliest takeover target for any tycoon wishing to emulate Abramovich. Daniel Levy and his fellow-owners would sell Spurs for around £450m and the 43% hike in revenue the club achieved via a good season on the pitch in 2006-7 was a signal of potential. The drawback is White Hart Lane, with its 36,236 capacity and limited scope for redevelopment.

Jokers in the pack could be Manchester City. Their owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, expects £800m of his assets soon to be unfrozen and it is understood that as well as sounding out the Portugal manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, about replacing Sven Göran-Eriksson, he made inquiries about Jose Mourinho. That may seem like asking Madonna to play your local village hall, but it shows how big Shinawatra is thinking. Whelan had the chance to buy 51% of Manches-ter United for £11m in 1989. “Man U are not my club . . . but I probably should have bought it and got on with it,” he said, with northern understatement.

“In the 1980s anyone rich could own a big football club; by the 1990s you had to be a millionaire,” said Szymanski. “Soon it may be the case that only billionaires need apply.”

There is also a European dimension. English football is burgeoning as a whole – Deloitte estimates that because of the Premier League’s new £2.4 billion television deal at least half of the top 20 in their next Football Money League will be English. The “six plus five” plan of Fifa president Sepp Blatter, which would restrict clubs to starting no more than five foreign players in a match, is seen as aimed at limiting the Premier League’s growing global power. The plan was rejected last week by MEPs, but it will not probably stop Blatter from trying again with similar legislation. “Finishing in the top four in England is the same as finishing in the top four in Europe,” said Benitez in defence of Liverpool’s league position. The Premier League can justly claim it does more to limit imbalances than any other top European league. Its latest TV deal spreads money more equitably than the previous with the highest-earning club in any season (payments are based partly on finishing position and appearances in televised games) getting 1.6 times the lowest earner. In the previous deal the ratio was 2.4:1. In Italy, where giants such as AC Milan benefit from individual TV deals, the differential is 30:1.

“Competitive imbalance is a fact of life in any sport,” said Szymanski. “It exists in the US, where they go to great lengths to create equality of opportunity. My question is, why should we be bothered? English football is achieving record popularity and those who think it would draw more supporters if smaller teams had more of a chance ignore the fact that bigger clubs would shrink.

“If Shrewsbury suddenly became extraordinarily successful, would their extra fans be more than the number Manchester United would lose? Look at France, where money is more equally divided. Their best players go abroad and their league has a lousy standard of play.”

The reaction to Keegan

‘I have been saying that for a long time. At the start of the season you know within four teams definitely, probably within three, and most betting people would say within two teams who is going to win the league. I contradict myself by saying it is brilliant to watch these teams do well in Europe, but they have too much of an advantage on a week-to-week basis for it to be a really competitive league.’ - Steve Coppell.

‘I have made the point a few times this season that you can see a slight wind of change. There have been more surprise results from the so-called lesser teams against the big teams than before. I just think that Kevin chose the wrong word. What he is saying is that it is a predictable league at the moment because the top four have been the same top four for the last few years.’ - Sir Alex Ferguson

‘Kevin is spot on. The top four are the top four because they have the most money and the best players and, while that exists, you are not going to get near them.’ - Harry Redknapp

Who are the Big Four?

MANCHESTER UNITED
Players: Cristiano Ronaldo, only 23, is regarded as the best in the world and United can also draw on world-class players such as Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez
Manager: in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson achieved the unprecedented ‘treble’, adding Champions League glory to Premier League and FA Cup wins. He was won nine league titles, fi ve FA Cups and two League Cups
Owner: American billionaire Malcolm Glazer bought the club, to the dismay of supporters, in 2005. Although Glazer has saddled the club with debt, United have still spent big money on Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves and Tevez since then

CHELSEA
Players: Since 2003, they have brought in the likes of Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and Andriy Shevchenko. They have also relied on England’s Frank Lampard and John Terry, believed to be the best paid player in the league on £130,000 a week
Manager: Despite being in contention for this year’s championship and the Champions League, Avram Grant has some way to go to match the achievements of his predecessor, Jose Mourinho, who won two titles, the FA Cup and two League Cups
Owner: Roman Abramovich topped the recent Sunday Times Rich List and it is his huge fortune, worth £11.7bn, that has catapulted Chelsea into English and European football’s elite since 2003

ARSENAL
Players: not as big spenders as their rivals but Thierry Henry, Marc Overmars, Patrick Vieira and Cesc Fabregas have emerged from the club as some of the most exciting players in the game
Manager: Wenger arrived in 1996 and has overseen the most successful period in the club’s history. Double winners in 1998 and 2002, they won a further title, in 2004, and the FA Cup in 2005
Owner: led by chairman Peter Hill-Wood, the board resisted a possible takeover by American Stanley Kroenke, who is the third largest share holder in the club. Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov is also believed to be interested in assuming control after taking up a 23% share

LIVERPOOL
Players: Local boy and England star Steven Gerrard is the favourite, along with Spanish striker Fernando Torres, left, who arrived in the summer with Dirk Kuyt (£10m) and Ryan Babel (£11.5m)
Manager: Rafa Benitez was brought in from Valencia where he had won the Spanish League and the Uefa Cup, and delivered the highest prize in his fi rst season on Merseyside, with the Champions League victory in 2005
Owner: American entrepreneurs Tom Hicks and George Gillett bought the club last year and provided the money to bring in the £23m Torres but the pair have since fallen out. Hicks is believed to be looking to buy out Gillett and inject more capital. Consortium Dubai International Capital could yet resurrect their bid

Think they’re big now? Just wait until they get their chequebooks out in the summer...

MANCHESTER UNITED
Sir Alex Ferguson has spoken openly about his liking for strikers Karim Benzema (Lyons) and Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham), which may indicate that Louis Saha’s injury-plagued days at Old Trafford are numbered. Newspaper reports also suggest that United could approach their neighbours about England defender Micah Richards (Manchester City), who could be a long-term replacement for Gary Neville. Other possible targets to strengthen an already formidable squad include Jose Bosingwa (Porto), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax), Marcelo Moreno (Cruzeiro), Wilson Palacios (Wigan) and Antonio Valencia (Wigan). Perhaps the biggest challenge will be retaining the services of Cristiano Ronaldo

CHELSEA
There may be a credit crunch but this is unlikely to affect Roman Abramovich, especially if, as expected Didier Drogba leaves. Speculation is already linking Chelsea with an £80m bid for Argentinian Lionel Messi (Barcelona), above, as well as other young stars of the Spanish league Daniel Alves (Sevilla) and David Villa (Valencia). Last month Avram Grant indicated that he would love to sign Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), who nearly moved to Stamford Bridge in 2005, although the player says he wants to stay at Anfi eld. Other names linked to a move to west London include Kaka (AC Milan), Maicon Douglas (Internazionale), Mario Gomez (Stuttgart), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) and Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)

ARSENAL
The departures of Mathieu Flamini and, it seems, Alexander Hleb to Italy have increased the pressure on Arsenal to match their rivals in the transfer market. Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), above, or Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) are possible replacements for Flamini in midfi eld. Arsène Wenger will also need more strike power next season. Thierry Henry (Barcelona) has not settled at his new club and made it clear that if he did return to England, he would sign only for the Gunners. Obafemi Martins (Newcastle United) could add muscle up front, while possible transfer targets include Michael Johnson (Manchester City), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Niko Kranjcar (Portsmouth) and the skilful midfielder Jean Makoun (Lille)

LIVERPOOL
Rafa Benitez is desperate for peace to break out behind the scenes at Anfi eld so that he can plan his summer spending. He has already managed to upset Martin O’Neill in spectacular fashion after Liverpool expressed an interest in signing Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), and may miss out on the Villa man. Some of the names linked with a move to Merseyside - Eric Abidal (Barcelona), Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Seydou Keita (Sevilla), Marcelo Moreno (Cruzeiro), Maik Taylor (Birmingham City) - do not exactly set the heart racing. The player many Liverpool fans would love to see in their team is David Bentley (Blackburn Rovers), above, who may feel that a switch from Rovers would enhance his chances of a regular England place

Busting to break in

EVERTON
How close are they? So far, they have been the closest team to breaking the Big Four oligopoly after holding the fi nal Champions League spot for part of the season, only to fade away and be overtaken by Liverpool in the past two months Can they take the next step? Manager David Moyes’s problem is that Everton are not a big club, with a stadium that cannot take more than 40,000, and do not, at the moment, have the fi nances to add big names to a comparatively small squad

SPURS
How close are they? They were poised to displace Arsenal from the top four in 2006, only to finish fifth after losing their last game of the season, following an outbreak of food poisoning Can they take the next step? Beat Chelsea in the Carling Cup, but there is work to do. They “should be competing with the top four” in 2008-09, according to boss Juande Ramos. The recent signing of Croatia star Luka Modric indicates the board will back his judgment but they are likely to lose striker Dimitar Berbatov

NEWCASTLE
How close are they? Third in 2003 and fi fth in 2004, the Magpies have been in steep decline ever since, belying their reputation as a big club Can they take the next step? New owner Mike Ashley opened his chequebook for Sam Allardyce last summer but he wasted it on Alan Smith (£6m), Jose Enrique (£6.3m) and Joey Barton (£5.8m). New boss Kevin Keegan has made clear how diffi cult it will be to challenge the Big Four, although he wants to bring Thierry Henry to the northeast. Good luck, Kev!

ASTON VILLA
How close are they? Like Everton, Villa have mounted a strong campaign to lie sixth but are still 14 points off the Big Four, and Martin O’Neill’s big signings for 2007-08, West Ham pair Marlon Harewood and Nigel Reo-Coker, have underperformed Can they take the next step? Unlike Everton, they have a wealthy backer, in the form of American billionaire Randy Lerner. If Villa are to show that they have aspirations to break into the elite they will have to keep Gareth Barry, the subject of an approach from Liverpool

WEST HAM
How close are they? Bought out by Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s wealthy Icelandic consortium in 2006, West Ham hoped to push for a place in Europe this season but instead lie a mediocre 10th Can they take the next step? Alan Curbishley has been given the money but unfortunately spent nearly £20m of it on Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy and Scott Parker, who have been injured or failed. Gudmundsson’s patience may soon run out and much will depend on plans for a new stadium

In search of a level playing field

Rugby union: The Guinness Premiership operates a salary cap aimed at preventing better-off clubs monopolising the sport’s star performers. There are also limits on the use of foreign players in a bid to develop English talent

Golf: In an attempt to give everybody else at least a chance of catching up with Tiger Woods, courses such as Augusta have been redesigned with longer holes, extra trees and more rough. It has not been an obvious success

Rugby league: Under the engage Super League’s salary cap, the combined earnings of a club’s top 25 players must not exceed £1.6m. Clubs can sign new players only if there is room under the financial ceiling

American football: The NFL uses a draft system under which teams take turns to sign new talent from the colleges. In theory, this stops the bigger teams dominating season after season

Baseball: Drafts are also used in Major League Baseball, where proposals to introduce a salary cap have been resisted. The system seems to work, as no single team has been able to dominate the World Series