The reap has been plentiful this summer by and large. Sure, Thierry Henry's pottered off to La Liga but there's a surefire argument to be made that he's given his best years to the Premiership, while there's been no mass exodus following him. On the contrary, most of the talent flow that's gone from one country to another has been in the direction of England. Liverpool have snapped up the hottest young Spanish talent in Fernando Torres, a player who admitted that his head wasn't turned by anyone else but the Anfield side, along with the star of Holland's under-21 European Championship win, Ryan Babel, as their higher-profile signings. Delve a tad deeper and you'll find they also snatched the Brazilian under-20 captain Lucas Leiva. Holland's top scorer in that under-21 tournament, Maceo Rigters, has signed for Blackburn.

France has been pillaged . . . their Ligue 1 Player of the Year for 06/07, Florent Malouda, hitching a lift on the Jose Mourinho bandwagon; their top full-back, Bakary Sagna joining Arsenal; best young central defender, Younes Kaboul, going to Spurs. Manchester United have grabbed Nani and Anderson, the two brightest young things in the Portuguese league, and, courts permitting, will be home for the mercurial talents of Argentine Carlos Tevez.

Sulley Muntari's transfer to Portsmouth means the Premier League now has maybe four of the top five African players. At a push you could say Arsenal have replaced Henry with one of the most exciting talents in eastern Europe in Eduardo Da Silva, who scored as many goals as anyone on the continent last season, albeit in the Croatian league. It's an impressive haul and a show of power in ways.

Certainly the list of incomings has a top-ofthe-range feel to it when a direct comparison is laid down with the various power belts that ought to be competing for this quality of player. Italian clubs are doing their shopping at home with a number of swaps, a rebuilding Juventus the only ones spending any type of big money this summer and their biggest import has been Tiago from Lyon. Real Madrid flexed a bit of financial muscle with a 30m payment for a central defender (Pepe from Porto) but Henry and Eric Abidal (both to Barcelona) are the only other major signings from outside to jazz up La Liga. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Premiership is hoovering up much of the Class A talent around, either by whisking them off for big bucks or shepherding them into the academies of the top four to work their way through in their own time. The Premier League is where it's at, in much the way Serie A was the destination of choice in the late '80s/ early '90s, the difference being that Italian football had quality control with a restriction on foreigners per team in those days. It all adds up to a fair smattering of the top drawer, the good and the distinctly mediocre finding their level, whether that be a Ronaldo or a Fabregas, a Djemba-Djemba or an Aliadiere.

Back in the 'Alive and Kicking' days of the Premiership, it was oh so different. There were 11 top-flight games on the very opening weekend in 1992/93; there were just 11 players started who were from outside Britain and Ireland. Last season the figure for non-English players in Premiership squads was around 59 per cent . . . it's the highest percentage of foreigners in any of the top leagues in Europe by a long shot. You could draw a line from Jurgen Klinsmann through Dennis Bergkamp and Gianfranco Zola to the pick and mix of today. In the early years the big-money summer signings had a British and Irish feel . . . from Alan Shearer to Roy Keane, Chris Sutton to Andy Cole and Stan Collymore . . . until the dam fairly burst with the likes of Fabrizio Ravanelli, Juninho, Bergkamp and Gianluca Vialli. By 1999 Chelsea were fielding a full XI from outside Britain and Ireland; it was 2005 before we saw Arsenal go the whole hog with a full matchday squad from beyond these islands.

The reaction has gone deep. Remember 'Grand Slam Sunday' last September when Sky Sports were licking their lips at the thought of the big four clashing on the very same day . . . Man United v Arsenal and Chelsea v Liverpool. Twenty-one different nationalities saw a piece of action that day on the pitch. Only 12 English players started the games and that number was probably inflated by unlikely starts for Wes Brown and Stephen Warnock. When Bolton continued their hoodoo over Arsenal a couple of months later at the Reebok, only four British players took part in total from the matchday squads of 16 each. It's little wonder that the English go ga-ga whenever a Micah Richards trots out of the woodwork. Go down the table and the same pattern continues . . .

Fulham and Blackburn played out a draw in April with only seven British players from 22 starting the game. These aren't aberrations in England just as they're not quite indicative of an overall trend in European football.

The Italians aren't known as good travellers anyway and the facts back that up. Seven of the AC Milan team that started the Champions League final were Italian, just like seven of the Roma team that beat Manchester United at the Stadio Olympico in the quarters. Granted, champions Inter would be one of the more cosmopolitan squads around but mid-table teams like Empoli and Parma regularly fielded nine or 10 Italians in their line-ups. Over in Spain the norm is somewhat comparable. Eight Spanish players started for Valencia in their Champions League quarter-final tie with Chelsea earlier in the year while clubs up the top of the table like Atletico Madrid and Real Zaragoza were riddled with Spaniards week in, week out. Even the whirlwind of an El Classico back in March . . . a 3-3 draw between Barcelona and Real Madrid where if there was going to be a deluge of foreign players, you'd expect it to be there . . . had 12 homeboys among the 22 starters that night. Spain and Italy haven't signed up to the import business in the same way England has.

The Irish have kept a foothold on the ladder, even if they've been overtaken by the French as the second most represented country in the Premier League. On that opening weekend of 1992/93, 15 Irish players saw action in the top league; 10 years ago in 1996/97, 12 Irish players took the fields across opening day; last season it was back up to 16. It is slightly more off-Broadway now though.

Take a look at the 1995/96 table and we were well represented across the top four . . . Roy Keane and Denis Irwin at United; Jason McAteer, Phil Babb and Mark Kennedy at Liverpool; Andy Townsend, Paul McGrath and Steve Staunton at Aston Villa.

Last year, only John O'Shea and Steve Finnan flew the flag in the top four while of that 16 that played on opening day, five of them were togged out in the Newcastle-Wigan game. With Sunderland added to the mix, you'd expect a similar number this time around.

The shiny allure of the Premiership doesn't look like slipping any time soon. This season is the beginning of a flamboyantly high-figured TV deal that'll see plenty cash into the coffers of every club in the league; more and more are finding their own Daddy Warbucks to raid whenever the need arises anyway. Chances are that if a big name comes up for auction, it'll be an English club leading the bidding.

And the crowds keep flocking in the gates in generally bigger numbers than before, give or take a few clubs who've seen reductions and acted to try and reverse the trend. In truth, only the Bundesliga can compete with the volume. Yep, the German league is the best attended in Europe what with the carnival feelgood atmosphere pervading football after the World Cup, extremely good value ticket prices . . . average is about 20 . . . and clubs that negotiate with fans before deciding on price increases all combine to create a decent package.

Borussia Dortmund regularly pull in over 70,000, Schalke 04 over 60,000 and they've 10 clubs with averages over 40,000. In England the average continues to rise, mainly on the back of the increased capacity at Old Trafford and Arsenal's move to the Emirates this past year, but five clubs were over the 40,000 mark themselves and all but three were over the 20,000 average last season.

Remarkably, the Championship in England was up in the top six for crowds across Europe this past season, 12 clubs averaging over 20,000 taking it right up there with Serie A numbers. (In fact, even La Liga had only 10 clubs with average numbers over the 20,000 mark last season. ) Teams like Wolves, Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton in England's second tier drawing much bigger numbers than names like Parma and Sampdoria might seem a tad bizarre but it's fact. Italy's poor showing can be put down in part to factors like Juventus in Serie B, the calciopoli scandal, the crowd trouble midway through the season but for a post World Cup-winning year, it's still the wrong side of 20,000 for the first time in forever.

Sunderland's rollercoaster joining the big league will boost next season's Premier League tally, as will Derby and Birmingham's arrivals; Liverpool's planned move to a bigger home in a few years will take it on another notch. Blackburn, perhaps the club who've seen biggest drops in numbers this past while, have slashed prices for this coming season and don't expect to see as many empty seats.

Bolton have done something similar. Manchester City were down in numbers but for a team supposedly haemorrhaging fans, they still had 41,424 turn out for a 0-0 draw with Charlton in April and 38,676 for Reading in February. For those harping on about hard times, it was a good deal better than the 23,994, for example, who turned up to Maine Road for Arsenal's visit in the 1995/96 season.

Everton against Sheffield United might not float everyone's boat but it still got almost 38,000 to Goodison last October.

The occasional talks of crisis aside, the league is in rude enough health then. Lack of competition is often used as a stick to beat the league with and it's partially valid. The quality in depth might be higher in La Liga and the turnover of top four challengers greater but the same teams keep winning the big prize anyway. Since 1992/93, only four teams have won the top division in England (United and Arsenal share 12 from 15) but then only five have won La Liga in the same timeframe (with Barcelona and Real Madrid sharing 11 from 15) and there've been five winners in Italy as well, with Juventus and Milan sharing 12 from 15.

That whole 'Best League in the World' lark can wait and it hardly matters. There's more technical quality and pizzazz every week in Spain, more persistent questioning of the top teams in other countries. What the Premier League has done is stockpile a fair heap of talent from abroad, become the superpower in the monetary stakes and filled its stadiums as well as anyone at the top table.

It's also changed beyond recognition from the days of 22 players from these islands running around on that first 'Super Sunday', Nottingham Forest v Liverpool, 15 years ago.

FOREIGN LEGIONS
Percentage of foreign players in top leagues 2006/07 Premiership
59% Bundesliga
46% La Liga 38% Serie A
30%

VOTING WITH THEIR FEET
Attendance figures across Europe Premiership 2006/07 average: 34,363
A top four of Manchester United . . . 75,826; Arsenal . . .60,045; Newcastle . . . 50,680; Liverpool . . . 43,561 This has risen steadily since the Premiership began. In 1998/99 it was just over 30,000, in 1992/93, just over 21,000. Twenty years ago in 1986/87, it was 19,777.

Bundesliga 2006/07 average: 37,644 Again a steady rise through the recent years. In 2001/02 it was 31,047, in 1992/93, it was 24,173.

The low point was 1988/89, with an average of 17,631.

La Liga 2006/07 average: 28,486 Predictably, Barcelona and Real Madrid top the charts, both over the 70,000 mark on average.

Sevilla, Atletico Madrid and Valencia were all over the 40,000 mark.

Serie A 2006/07 average: 19,711 Comfortably as bad as it'd been for Italian football. Inter and AC Milan were the top two, with Roma and Fiorentina behind. In 2001/02 it was 26,000, and in 1997/98 it was over 31,000. Back in the glory days, it was 38,871 in 1984/85.

Championship 2006/07 average: 18,221 As high as the championship has gotten, with Sunderland having an average over 31,000 and Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Leicester all being in the mid-20s.