On The Premiership: Twenty-two years ago, Keith Burkinshaw, the former Tottenham Hotspur manager, cast a glance over his shoulder to White Hart Lane's brand new West Stand, all glittering glass and corporate swank, and delivered one of football's most renowned exit lines: "There used to be a football club over there." Moments later, the man who had just led Spurs to the 1984 Uefa cup tendered his resignation.
In the struggle between football's traditionalists and its money men, that moment is now viewed as a tipping point. Burkinshaw, who had attempted to restore Spurs to the purist philosophy of Bill Nicholson, had been beaten by the game's new powerbrokers - the shareholders and finance executives. Once Tottenham's position on the stock exchange had become more significant than their place in the league table, there was simply no room for men like him.
Quite what Burkinshaw would make of the chaos currently engulfing West Ham United - which continues, regardless of yesterday's 2-1 victory over Blackburn - is anybody's guess. Upton Park used to be a place where English football' s more palatable traditions - community spirit, managerial stability and a proud history of promoting local talent - could be guaranteed a home. But not any more. Where there was once a football club on Green Street, there is now a circus, and Alan Pardew is the reluctant ringmaster.
West Ham's recent history should serve as a cautionary tale to any would-be investor who believes the boardroom and the dressingroom are just different sides of the same memo pad. Trouble has been brewing in east London ever since Pardew was forced by unseen hands to make room in his squad for the Argentine internationals Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez: gifted players, certainly, but global stars whose super-size profiles jarred awkwardly with the all-for-one ethos which had characterised West Ham ever since they won promotion to the Premiership in 2005.
It was patently obvious to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Premiership football that Pardew did not want or need either Mascherano or Tevez. He knew it, the board knew it and - perhaps most damagingly of all - the players themselves knew it. Yet at no point did the groups responsible for the south Americans' arrival - Media Sports Investment, the company that owns their registration, or the West Ham board - pause to consider the consequences of foisting them upon poor Pardew. Like so many of the figures who determine the course of the modern game, all they saw were the pound signs.
Now, there is a real danger that all the hard work undertaken by Pardew - a man who had to labour just to win over a notoriously demanding fan-base - will be reduced to rubble. The togetherness which enabled West Ham to re-establish themselves in the top flight and reach the FA Cup final last season has been splintered. The club is now riddled by splits between players, disillusionment among the coaching staff and boardroom angst.
The latter manifested itself in the most damaging way after West Ham had been unceremoniously dumped out of the League Cup at Chesterfield. Terence Brown - a figure whose public profile is usually only marginally higher than Salman Rushdie's at the height of his fatwa - strode into the dressingroom and branded the performance as worthy of a "pub team". In the wake of that report, Pardew's own analysis of a humiliating night was virtually ignored.
For that alone, his position has become virtually untenable. Brown might not have realised it at the time, but his decision to invade Pardew's sacred space and deliver his own brand of hairdryer treatment utterly undermined the manager. Far from being chastened, players would have interpreted such an anomaly as a sign of weakness in their leader - as proof that Pardew was no fit enough even to administer his own rollockings.
It is all grossly unfair, of course, but perhaps Pardew should pre-empt his sacking, which will be confirmed as soon as the club's takeover is complete, if not before, and walk away. Resignation now would allow him to retain his pride - important for Pardew who is, if nothing else, a dignified man - and, more importantly, his reputation.
The fans do not blame Pardew for their club's current predicament and neither do the footballing public at large. The 45-year-old would be seen as a victim of a situation beyond his control and would, therefore, have no problem walking into another job.
Such goodwill is not limitless, of course, and with each defeat and each piece of report of behind-the-scenes pandemonium, Pardew's hand become weaker.
Like Burkinshaw, he has a decision to make and, as a genuine football man, he should consider whether he has any place at an institution which is no longer a football club.
