Charity: it is not a word that has been associated with Manchester United and Arsenal over the past two weeks of talks about a £2 billion Super League.
But tomorrow's Wembley line-ups will highlight just why the Premiership's two main rebel conspirators are willing to ignore accusations of greed in their pursuit of more wealth.
Despite United's desire to erase the memory of a trophy-less season and Arsenal's urge to conquer the Champions' League, tomorrow's Wembley teams will feature only a few new faces and, though that does include the world's most expensive defender, Jaap Stam, the fact is that the capacity of England's richest club and the country's champions to bid for more of the planet's finest remains limited.
The Ronaldos, Batistutas, Ortegas, Deschamps and Zidanes of this world are only holiday visitors. United even failed to attract Patrick Kluivert while their £4.4 million signing from Inter nazionale, the Swedish winger Jesper Blomquist, who is absent tomorrow with an ankle injury, was a reluctant arrival and Dwight Yorke remains out of United's financial reach.
Arsenal are in a worse state. "United want to give the best players to their fans and they have some ability to do it," said the manager Arsene Wenger. "One day we will have to do it as well but at the moment we couldn't spend £10.5 million on one player."
United do have what amounts to a new player in the fit-again Roy Keane, who should play his first competitive game for almost a year.
But while Alex Ferguson would like to exact revenge over the team who pinched United's league title last season and beat them twice on the way, the players could be forgiven for taking things easy, given Wednesday's Champions' League qualifier against LKS Lodz of Poland.
"Sunday is a great occasion and once we step out at Wembley we will be focused but next week is much more important," said Peter Schmeichel, who was generous about how the title was lost.
"We played some really good football last season but we didn't have enough at the end," he said. "It wasn't just down to us, it was down to Arsenal. Ten wins on the trot was fantastic, a marvellous achievement. We didn't lose the title; they won it."
Wenger's summer signings, after being thwarted in his pursuit of Ronald de Boer, have been limited to the £500,000 18year-old defender David Grondin from St Etienne and the £2-million acquisition of the Argentine defender Nelson Vivas, who will make his Arsenal debut tomorrow.
However, with Ian Wright now at West Ham United, Wenger did admit yesterday that "we will sign another player and it will be a striker".
Tomorrow's game will give Arsenal more valuable experience of the venue for their home Champions' League ties but just how they will feel at home as a team remains to be seen. Their World Cup players returned to training only yesterday after a measly three-week rest.
Meanwhile, Wegner has dismissed reports that he is to become the coach of Japan. He said yesterday he is committed to Arsenal this season and hopes to sign a new contract at Highbury "within two weeks".
