If Kroenke continues in his apparent efforts to purchase a controlling share in Arsenal, it will be interesting to see what he makes of the Premiership.

Three times in the past few days, prominent individuals in the English game have decried the way that competition has come to be utterly dominated by Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. Whatever their own agendas for voicing these concerns now, it's difficult to argue with Wigan chairman Dave Whelan, Bolton manager Sam Allardyce and Manchester City's Stuart Pearce as they caution that the public might soon grow very tired of this oligarchy.

"Next season, you know, I know, the rest of the nation knows that it's going to be Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea who are going to be the top four, " said Whelan last weekend. "That's not competition, and we must change that. If we all got �35-40m . . . rather than some clubs getting �25m or �30m and the top clubs getting �50m or �60m . . . we could afford better players. That would lead to better competition and Manchester United and Chelsea not winning everything."

The search for possible remedies to this problem should begin in the US where salary caps and revenue sharing are the order of the day. Without both of those in place in the NFL, the Glazer family could never have enjoyed the sight of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl (below).

In a sport where all television revenue is divided equally, it's possible for a team to go from pretenders to contenders in about two seasons. This is one of the reasons why most clubs have lengthy waiting lists for season tickets and the NFL is the most commercially successful and popular game in America at this time.

It helps too that their salary cap is so strict they don't even allow for a luxury tax. All new contracts must be approved by the NFL head office and clubs are simply forbidden from signing players if the wages being offered push them through the ceiling. For the forthcoming campaign, the cap will stand at $107m. Better yet, to stop pennypinching owners from skimping on how much they pay individuals, every club must fork out at least 85 per cent of that amount on their wage bill. Again, this helps make the league more competitive by ensuring that everybody is spending at least enough to give them a fighting chance of winning the Vince Lombardi trophy at the start of each season.

The NBA's salary cap stands at $53.135m but their clubs are free to go as far above that amount as they like. The only proviso is that for every dollar they go over the limit, they must pay a dollar back to the league. Major League Baseball operates on a similar premise, using a system that allows the wealthier owners to overspend in a way that ends up benefiting the less well-off clubs when the luxury tax is subsequently redistributed. Ironically, in both those sports, the teams with the biggest wage bills have not proven to be the most successful in recent years.

Unless the G-14 clubs in the Premiership end up departing to participate in a breakaway European league, something along those lines is desperately needed to make the competition interesting again. Notwithstanding EU legal considerations hampering a potential salary cap, the English clubs should be smart enough to realise the number of empty seats at grounds will grow if the likes of Bolton can't harbour an ambition beyond Allardyce's assertion that: "If we finish fifth we have won our league as far as I'm concerned because we're not supposed to be in amongst the top four."

The principle of a salary cap has already been established in the English game. Since 2003, clubs in the lower divisions have been adhering to the socalled Salary Cost Management Protocol. Designed to prevent teams from living beyond their means, that rule limits the amount that can be spent on wages to 60 per cent of the turnover.

That stipulation mightn't work in a league where Manchester United's turnover dwarfs most but at least it sets a precedent for trying to establish some sort of parity.

Ironically, the best chance of effecting change may come from the growing American presence in the ownership ranks. Via their various interests in the NFL, NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball, the Glazers, Randy Lerner, George Gillett and Tom Hicks bring knowledge and experience of the positive impact of salary caps and revenue sharing to the boardrooms at Old Trafford, Villa Park and Anfield. They know well that in the long run leagues where every club can legitimately dream of glory are more viable financial entities.

Sooner rather than later, they should be asked to share that information with the rest of the Premiership.