SOCCER: In the first of his weekly columns, Paul McGrath explains why he's a Chelsea fan, but not a Chelsea supporter

It was 1970 in Glen Silva in Monkstown. It was the first time I'd ever actually sat down and seriously watched a soccer match. Me and Robert Taggart, an older friend. Chelsea versus Leeds in the FA Cup final. I've a lot to thank Robert for. He was a Chelsea fan. I became one too. It could just as easily have been Leeds. My brother brought me a Chelsea strip for Christmas. The groovy white stripe on the shorts, the white socks. They were like rock and roll stars those guys. The hair, the style.

Peter Osgood was the complete hero. Osgood, Charlie Cooke, Chopper Harris, Hutchinson, Hudson. David Webb. I loved them all. One of the biggest thrills of being a professional player for me was going to Chelsea to play there.

I met Peter Osgood once at Stamford Bridge while he was doing corporate stuff. The glamour never left him. Or the club. I'd look out for Chelsea's results even when I was playing for other teams. They never showed any interest in signing me, but I often sent out a whisper of my own. Psst, I'm a Chelsea fan. Closest I got was some interest from Spurs, but Gazza had just signed and taken up all their budget.

These are good times to be a Chelsea fan. Top of the league and the first trophy of the new era being delivered last week. It's been so long and there's been so many years of bad times and ordinary teams and Ken Bates that we'd be forgiven sometimes for not seeing the bigger picture.

Chelsea's arrival is obviously a good thing. Arsenal and Manchester United were getting to be like the Old Firm in Scotland. At least that has broken up. It makes the Premiership a little more competitive, but not much.

It used to be a boast in English football that you couldn't buy the league. You can, though. Blackburn did. Now Chelsea. And United and Arsenal in between.

As a fan I wouldn't change Chelsea's position. Not for a while anyway. It is a league of the 'haves' and the 'have nots', though. There's a couple of surprises each year

Middlesbrough and Everton are doing well this season but without money, lots of it, nothing can be sustained. The boast now is that any team on its day can beat any other team in the league. As that's how it should be. It's not much of a boast.

I think there's a real problem, too, with the nature of Chelsea's ownership. Roman Abramovich has the ability to hold the soccer world to ransom right now. As I say, it's nice being a Chelsea fan right now, when we can buy who we want and we're winning stuff, but most of the buoyancy on the English transfer market the last season or so has come from Chelsea.

The club has managed to out-spend United and Arsenal and haven't had to worry about possible consequences. For the owner, it's a hobby. I'm hoping it's a hobby which he will continue. I look at Leeds and shudder and thank the lord I met Robert Taggart 35 years ago. I'd hate that to happen to Chelsea.

It's all good at the moment, but what is in place if Roman suddenly takes a fancy to American football or something and just moves his interest? It happened a few years ago in baseball. The Florida Marlins basically bought the World Series and then the owner dismantled the team.

I hope it's a love affair for Roman and not just a fling. Baseball was able to sustain what happened in Florida. I'm not sure about what impact the collapse of Chelsea would have on English soccer. It comes down in the end to wages. When I was finishing at Manchester United I was earning £65,000 a year which seems quaint now and was beginning to look quaint even then as lads in the reserves were getting more than me.

I went in by myself to Alex and tried for a little more. He told me that what I was getting was what I would get and that was it. I was on a seven-year contract and if United hadn't decided to offload me soon after I would have been trapped there on what was becoming in football money, a pittance.

So I'm all for players having a bit of power. We got good money for our time, but there was abuse of loyalty by some of the chairmen who wielded power. All that power has transferred to the players , or I suppose their agents now. I like to see players doing well, but I'm not sure the current situation is good for the game.

The wages of the Chelsea squad that won in Cardiff last Sunday are beyond what I can imagine. That money bought a trophy, but I'm not sure it buys any loyalty to the club or any long-term benefit for the game.

The revolution has brought us a lot of players who are happy to sit in the stand and not contribute anything special to the club. It's too comfortable. We have agents taking a lot of money out of the game, mostly by stirring unhappiness in players by letting them know what other players are getting.

OVERALL, THE agency system has done a good job for footballers, but so much gets bled out of the game now. The sole aim is making money. I see players at certain clubs being disrupted. A long run at the one club isn't in an agent's interest. I know. There were less agents in my time, but I actually paid a couple of them off just to leave me alone. They'll get cash out of you one way or another.

The agents and the presence of a big new employer like Chelsea who can pay wages regardless of the bottom line has made the league less competitive. Every time you switch on the teletext there's a top player putting his own club under pressure claiming that he has heard Chelsea are interested in paying him huge money.

There are some good agents out there, a small few who are just happy to get a player the best wages they can. You look, though, at so many toe rags looking to make themselves quick cash and the way in which big clubs are happy to help them and it makes you wonder. A player has six good games and his agent is looking around touting him, asking other clubs to put bids on or put down markers. Contracts are virtually worthless and players get unhappy because they don't like the colour the manager has dyed his hair.

The game needs to take the pressure off itself and introduce a salary cap system. Giving everybody a fixed squad size and a fixed budget for wages would put the emphasis back on good management and bring a little competitiveness back to the league.

American football has the most advanced salary cap system in sport and there is a constant turnover of good teams.

It could have been Leeds United for me. Or Chelsea could be the next Leeds United.

Either way, it's scary.