Andrew Fifield On the Premiership: It takes a lot to make Adrian Boothroyd bristle but, three weeks ago, one presumptuous journalist found a way. The affable young Watford manager was preparing for his side's encounter with Manchester United when his interrogator accused him of being a realist.

"I'm not a realist," Boothroyd snapped. "I'm a dreamer. But progress depends on people like me - unreasonable men that won't go along with convention."

It was a stirring retort, and enough to make even the most hardened cynic go all gooey inside, but 24 hours later the air of romanticism was rudely blown apart. United came to Vicarage Road, liked what they saw and conquered their upstart opponents by the odd goal in three, despite never easing out of second gear.

Boothroyd was left to reflect, bitterly, on the fact the modern-day Premiership is no place for dreamers.

The English top flight is now a place where money talks, very loudly, and it is the promoted clubs who are in the greatest danger of being drowned out.

The dramatic increase in television revenues for the Premiership elite has coincided with a marked drop in income for Football League clubs - a knock-on effect from the collapse of the ITV Digital deal in 2001 - and the resultant gulf in finances is simply too great for most to bridge.

The notable success of West Ham and Wigan last season appears to buck the trend, but in fact they exemplify it. Both Alan Pardew and Paul Jewell were granted bulky budgets to spend on new blood and their rewards were top-half finishes. Significantly, the only newcomer who failed to make an impression on the transfer market, Sunderland, had vanished without trace by Christmas.

Success, sadly, is now governed by the chequebook rather than the tactics board.

Watford are in an almost unique position to judge this brave new world. It is not that long ago - 24 years, to be precise - that the club won promotion from the old second division and then came agonisingly close to pipping Liverpool to the league crown. The following year they reached the FA Cup final but lost to Everton.

The success of that dynamic young side, expertly led by Graham Taylor, depended on the surging runs of John Barnes and Nigel Callaghan down the flanks, the dead-eye shooting of Luther Blissett and the steely resolve of a defence superbly marshalled by Wilf Rostron.

It was a potent blend and enough to transform a humble club, which had previously hovered unnoticed and unappreciated on the fringe of London, into a genuine force.

It is to be hoped that Watford supporters made the most of those halcyon days, because they will never be repeated - not at Watford and not at any other club which fails to find a space at the money trough. The cash-laden few - you know the ones, they have finished in the Premiership's top five for the past four seasons - simply have too many advantages.

The modern-day Liverpool would never have allowed Barnes to remain at Watford for seven years before luring him to Merseyside; Blissett, as one of the league's most lethal strikers, would have been a Manchester United player quicker than you can say £60,000-a-week; Chelsea would probably have whisked Callaghan away from Hertfordshire while he was still a schoolboy.

There is no romance left in modern professional football, no space for dreamers like Boothroyd or, indeed, Arsene Wenger. The Arsenal manager has sacrificed success on the altar of his footballing principles - an admirable decision, but a kamikaze one. There is no question Wenger is in charge of the league's most aesthetically pleasing side; equally, there is no doubt they will finish well off the pace in the Premiership this season.

This is Chelsea's era, a side who surgically extract whatever fun can be found in functionality. Jose Mourinho is the mirror image of Wenger in so many ways, but the most obvious contrast is the way the Portuguese emphasises points ahead of panache.

It is the reason why the Premiership title has found its home at Stamford Bridge for the past two seasons, while Arsenal have floundered.

But at what cost? The romantics may have it tough at the moment but the more years pass, the more misty-eyed people become. Mourinho and his pragmatic side will be remembered as winners but posterity is likely to be kinder to Wenger.

His invincibles from the 2003/04 season achieved success without skimping on the style and thus magnified their achievement tenfold.

Watford and Boothroyd might not receive equal billing in the history books but, for all that, it is reassuring to know that even in these prosaic times, there are people out there who can dare to dream.