O'Neill, whose side play Wigan in the Premiership today, says the "alienation" between supporters and players is at a peak.

"With the amount of money flying around in the game and what it costs to get into a game, fans are saying 'I'm paying £45 for a ticket, I'm entitled to be entertained and I'm entitled for my team to be doing better'."

"We will never get back to the days where Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney travelled on the same bus as supporters to a game . . . but we may have gone too far in the other direction."