I have vowed to abandon my lifelong support for my club when they field a team without a British or Irish player included.
I realise Ireland, Scotland and Wales have their own leagues and therefore are providing "foreign players" but "my game, my rules".
There is still clearly a (remote and fading) hope that a kid growing up near Old Trafford could actually play for Man U. It still happens.
Just like politics though, Premier league football is very short-termist at the sharp end.
A Manager is usually 10 games away from the sack, he doesn't have the luxury of developing talent for the long-term, his job is on the line from game #1.
Much simpler to buy Ronaldo now than to wait 5 years to see if that promising kid from Salford turns into the new one.
It's crap really, basing your local identity on a foreign consortium-owned club, branded as "The Divine Theatre of Saudi Ambition", staffed by a foreign coaching team and being played by an assortment of Italians, Croatians, Japanese, Spaniards and Nigerians whose agents are trying their hardest to move them on somewhere else for £300,000 a week.
Did I sum up the beautiful game accurately there?