Football's finances were under the microscope again this week and the results point to a bleak future for some of Britain's top clubs.

Firstly, British footballs rich list was unveiled showing that Roman Abramovich is no longer the country's richest football club owner. Instead he is now third behind Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Man City and Lakshmi Mittal of QPR. The Russian oligarch is estimated to have lost billions of pounds during the recent economic crisis and as a result he has already started making cutbacks at Chelsea (even the players' allocation of complimentary match tickets was slashed by half in order to cut costs). Before then the Londoners seemed untouchable in the money stakes, whoever they wanted they got, and a period of sustained success seemed inevitable. But the world of finance can be as hard to predict as the football results so the two merged together was always going to be a a volatile mix.

I believe Abramovich's toppling off the summit of footballs rich list may become as symbolic and significant as the day he first swept into Stamford Bridge to bail out the then heavily indebted London club.

This is because his arrival in 2003 opened the door to a number of rich foreign investors eager to spend their billions (not millions) and make a quick buck out of the world's most popular League. For the clubs it must have been like all their Christmases had come at once. With their creditors at their door and the fear of what's now become known as  'doing a Leeds'  becoming a grim reality, these rich sugar daddies offered them a get out of jail free card, wiping out their debts and giving their eager managers seemingly endless amounts of cash for the manager to spend. True Championship Manager type stuff. For the owners it was a way of beating the football odds and buying instant success.

I've no doubt that when John Terry lifted the Premier League title Chelsea fans didn't really care where all their clubs money came from, but in the cold light of day, I'm sure even the most ardent of Blues fan would admit there was something slightly wrong about their team becoming a rich mans play thing. Don't forget Chelsea are currently indebted to the tune of £730million, around £578million of which is in the form of an 'interest free loan' from Abramovich. Should Abramovich choose to call in the loan, the club would have just 18 months to find the money.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Portsmouth, West Ham and Man City (twice) all fell into the hands of foreign owners following Abramovich's lead. Like a rich parent paying their child's credit card bill after they maxed it out at University, some football clubs were not paying the price for their earlier irresponsible spending.

But with the sport now firmly plugged into the cycle of the world economy the economic crisis that snowballed throughout 2008 changed the football landscape and could have some catastrophic consequences. Football is no longer a safe investment for owners, and even for those who want to invest, the credit just isn't there anymore. For Abramovich it could be a case of first in first out if the rumours that he is wiling to sell up are true.

Evidence of belt tightening has been shown by the quiet start to the transfer window - cash rich Man City aside. City will have noticed that they've got precious little competition from other clubs when bidding for players. The main problem for them is dealing with the selling clubs who, eager to get some Arab money of their own, double the asking price for any player City take a fancy to - and who can blame them?

Keith Harris, the merchant banker who has brokered the foreign takeovers of a number of Premier League clubs, said the current economic climate was the "toughest anybody has endured in a lifetime," and that means we are "unlikely to see much activity on the takeover scene."

This means that the football club's last line of defence against insolvency has been pulled away from under their feet. Harris has been instructed to find buyers (so far without success) for Newcastle and Everton, two clubs with a mountain of debt and desperate to find the money to break into the top four. Portsmouth and West Ham have being selling players to appease their creditors and have been put up for sale by their credit crunched foreign owners. Meanwhile David Gillett and Tom Hicks of Liverpool had to ask more time from the bank to repay a £350 million loan.

While the clubs are suffering financially the players appear to be as rich as ever, giving us a clue as to where a lot of the money has gone. Alongside the football owners rich list the countries richest players were also revealed this week. It would come to no surprise that David Beckham was number one with an estimated fortune of £125 million, over three times that of second placed Michael Owen. Now I realise much of the top players fortunes come from marketing and advertising deals but they are still paid obscenely high wages by the clubs. These enormous wage levels were never going to be sustainable and much of the money poured into the game over the last decade has, instead of being re-invested, flowed out in a sea of fast cars, mansions and expensive clothes.

Also revealed this week was the credit rating of each Premier League club, complied by credit information firm Equifax. The results showed that half of the 20 clubs are technically insolvent and would struggle to repay their debts if all their creditors requested their money back at once.

Now that scenario is unlikely, but with no billionaire knight in shining armour to act as a last line of defence football clubs are teetering on the edge of a financial precipice. In the long term the end of irresponsible spending can only be of benefit, but how many football clubs will go the way of Woolworths before we get there?

How will the credit crunch affect the title race? Bet on the Premier League here at Betfair.

Every so often as a football fan you get a reminder of why you fell in love with the beautiful game.

Not many things in life can put you through such a range of emotions in such a short space of time, emotions those on the outside cannot understand. It can dictate your plans for the evening, your mood for the next week and even your productivity at work.

Evertonians got such a reminder at Goodison Park last week when, in the space of about 30 seconds, they were propelled to the highest of heights as Joleon Lescott span acrobatically to hook the ball past Brad Friedel; only to slammed unceremoniously the floor when Ashley Young sped past said Lescott to win the game in the 94th minute.

All the expected reactions were there - shock, anger, frustration, disbelief. But after the dust had settled I'm sure there was a part of Every Evertonian that was glad that grandstand finish took place. I know they would rather Everton had got the last minute winner of course, but in the days of the credit crunch, Russian Billionaires and Arab trillionaires, it was nice to get a reminder of why you watch the game in the first place.

The big four were nowhere to be seen, it was drama not even a Sheik could buy, and the two players at the centre of the story were English, refreshing stuff indeed.

The jury is still out on where Everton's Premiership season will end up. The fan's expectations - and the betting odds - seem to change week by week with each passing result. A fact highlighted when Tim Cahill rose above the Man City defence to head a stoppage time winner just a week after the Villa drama. Cue the long line of footballing cliches - luck evens itself out over a season, play right to the final whistle, it's a funny old game.... plus the thought that my reaction to the Villa game was vindicated.

Where next on Everton's footballing roller coaster? Chelsea. If any club is a symbol of the new merged world of football and finance its Roman Abramovich's London play thing. Will the Kings Road aristocrats inspire the Toffees to yet again overcome the football odds? Or will their arrival at Goodison, complete with the best away record in the division, bring Everton back down to earth with an Ashley Young style bump?

Nicolas Anelka left Bolton Wanderers to join Chelsea last January and makes his first return to the Reebok Stadium this weekend, where in-form Bolton take on Big Phil Scolari's high-flying Stamford Bridge side.

Despite being the Premiership's top scorer when he left Lancashire the Frenchman took a while to settle in at Stamford Bridge and spent much of the 2007/2008 campaign playing second fiddle to Didier Drogba.  However, Drogba's injury and now suspension problems have allowed Anelka his moment in the sun and he is now banging in goals for fun at his new side.  Anelka has a habit of scoring against his former clubs, Mr Arsene Wenger can testify to that, anyone looking for a football betting tip this weekend could do a lot worse than backing Anelka as first scorer at the Reebok.

Despite their limited resources in comparison to Chelsea, Bolton should not be counted out of this encounter.  They've had a good run of late and have seen off Manchester City, Hull, Sunderland and Middlesbrough recently, while record signing Johan Elmander is showing the kind of form to justify his price tag.  The Wanderers have one of the meanest defences in the Premier League and are not above giving out some rough treatment, they're not going to give Anelka an easy ride just because he used to wear the white shirt.

There is no doubt that Anelka is one of the world's best strikers and he can be a handful for any defence. The defensive partnership of Gary Cahill and Andy O'Brien will know all about his talent and you can get some decent soccer betting odds on the duo keeping out Chelsea's forwards.

I'm thinking that Chelsea are going to be just a bit too strong for Bolton this weekend and they seem to be playing with greater freedom and more confidence away from home. It's going to be a tough contest but I expect Chelsea to come away with a victory with Anelka grabbing the first in a 2-1 win.

29th June.
This was the date when top flight competitive football took a break for the Summer and after a long yet exciting season Manchester United had been crowned Premiership Champions on the final day of the season and European Champions in Moscow just two weeks later; the end of June saw the crowning of Spain as victors of Euro 2008.
For many football enthusiasts the next eight weeks will have been hell on Earth, I mean what else can football fans possibly talk about when the season is over right?!
Sarcasm aside, the Summer has brought about many interesting and tantalising talking points for the coming season and this feature will focus on those main talking points.
Firstly, Manchester United. The Red Devils are a club which are infrequently off the back page of the majority of national newspapers but this Summer there has been one issue which has been on the tip of everyone's tongue, the future of Cristiano Ronaldo.