Gordon Taylor was sitting at his desk diligently signing his name again and again. The chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association put down 92 signatures in all, one on each letter to the PFA representative at the Premiership and Football League's 92 clubs. Some of those union reps are defenders and midfielders. By November they could all be strikers.

Taylor's letter was an update on the present "difficult" situation. November is when the proposed strike action advocated by the PFA would kick-off. Initially, league matches televised live would be targeted, but in an escalation of the excitable language that has been evident in this fight over the PFA's share of TV money, Taylor added that FA Cup ties and international fixtures could also be affected.

"At the moment it's not about FA Cup ties or international games," Taylor said, "at the moment". He smiled.

"We're hoping to conduct negotiations reasonably with the FA. But that is still not sorted because when they first circled the wagons there were three of them (the FA, Premier League and Football League). We said to Adam Crozier: 'The FA should be more impartial than this. You should be looking after the interests of players as well as clubs - you're not the employer.' He accepted that point."

In a quarrel that has already been ridiculed as "we'll fight them on the Ferrari forecourts" - rich footballers greedily grasping for more money - this international threat should act as a further wake-up call to those who do not take either Taylor or the players seriously.

Yet did Crozier really listen to the PFA? "Yeah," Taylor replied. He qualified that with a long "but", then returned to his pile of letters.

It was a short, sweet insight into Taylor and the type of individual the Football and Premier Leagues are up against in this strikingly old-fashioned spat. Taylor was a determined little winger in his days with Bolton Wanderers and Birmingham City. Now at 56 he is a determined little trade union leader. "Like a dog with a bone", he has described himself.

The PFA want their traditional 5 per cent cut of the latest TV deal. They say they have been offered less than 1 per cent and will go to court and then to the picket line if necessary. The Premier League say the players cannot strike. They say they will seek an injunction. They say that Taylor is massaging the figures.

There are also chairmen who speak of Taylor as an empire builder, who point to his position as head of Fifpro, the international players' union, as evidence of that, and chairmen who consider him a publicity-conscious irritant.

Yet even Ken Bates, Chelsea chairman and one of the Premier League's combatants alongside chief executive Richard Scudamore, would concede Taylor can fight his corner.

Bates and Taylor go back a long way and though Taylor insists: "This isn't personal, this is about our members, right?", the personalities at the heart of any economic row dictate its profile. For instance, it was Taylor who mentioned that Rick Parry was an easier man to deal with than the present administrators.

And there has been an acidic tone to much of the comment made. Stories concerning Taylor's and the PFA's financial integrity have been leaked. Press officers have been berated and a Sunday newspaper will be sued. It is personal. "With Fifpro, when I'm speaking with FIFA and UEFA I'm treated with respect," Taylor said. Then he used the word "spin".

"They've broken a collective bargaining agreement and now they're trying to spin it that it's all about greedy players," Taylor said. "They want to portray it as them funding us through grace and favour. Well, we ain't into grace and favour. This is about respect. They have shown a total disregard for what should be a proper partnership.

"We have a quarterly meeting on all aspects of the game and the chief executives of the FA, Premier League and the Football League have not been coming. They've started to try and really diminish the PFA. It's political, they're trying to marginalise us.

"We were here in the 80s when the game was on its knees under Margaret Thatcher. Clubs were going under, four clubs now in the Premiership - Fulham, Middlesbrough, Charlton, Derby County. Who paid the wages at Hull City? I've got a long memory.

"Now they're saying we've no right to strike. I'm saying we have. It'll be interesting."

Taylor's telephone rang. It was Tommy Smith, once a savage Liverpool full-back, now a ravaged ex-Liverpool full-back who had joints replaced courtesy of the PFA. "We've got 50,000 former players to look after," said Taylor.

"Tommy, it's about respect," Taylor shouted. "These people don't want a union. They want to go back to the last century. They would have us sending apprentices up chimneys."

Taylor can talk. They know him as "GT" in the PFA office and it may as well be shorthand for Good Talker. Wading through the torrent can be challenging but worth it. It is, presumably, why Bates and Co invited Taylor to come on board a while ago.

What was the exact nature of the offer? Taylor chortled, perhaps because this tale had finally emerged. "These people said: 'Gordon, don't worry, we'll restructure the game and you'll be on the executive board (of the Premier League) representing the players'. Then it doesn't happen." So he didn't take it? "Didn't take it! Don't make me laugh." The offer never materialised, he insisted.

Now they are back on the opposite sides of a big fence. What's his relationship like with "these people"? "He's never faxed me or anything," Taylor said of Scudamore, whom he met fruitlessly again yesterday, "but I'm at meetings at which he's supposed to be (present)." And Bates? "Everybody knows Ken and he's done a good job at Chelsea, I'm not denying that. I speak to him, I hope I'm personable with them all. But he comes with a different philosophy on life to me. We've no confidence in people who think purely of money. We're about a redistribution of money, which is no bad philosophy - for football, for competition, for people. In fact it's not a bad philosophy for the world at the moment." The world of English football awaits a resolution. The players wait for Taylor's next letter.