Premier Be-Leaguered: 7 Reasons I Ditched Football's Top Division

How lower league football trumps the money-spinning Premier League

1. Money, money, money

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It's almost become an anti-PL cliche, but that doesn't mean it isn't true - the money at the top of the game is obnoxious. For example, Wayne Rooney earns ten times the average UK annual salary in a week. And to think football used to be called the working man's game.

But dip down a few divisions, and everything changes. The typical League Two salary is £1,500 per week, which banishes the "I'd have scored that penalty if I were on eighty grand a week" talk. Still, funny though, innit?

2. Tickets aren't a racket. Yet.

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I swapped Manchester United in the Premier League for League Two's Dagenham & Redbridge - yep, it's a long story, one I've written about - and the cost difference is ridiculous.

Arsenal, famously, have the most expensive season ticket in world football, their costliest priced at more than £2,000. By contrast, my new team, the Daggers - get me, learning their nickname already - had an early-bird offering that worked out at less than £8 per match.

So I can actually afford a pie at half-time now.

3. No more Gywnnie-style diets

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I'm sick of footballers being robots. In bed by eight, any remote indication of personality being exhibited on Twitter quickly shut down, and club-hired chefs to oversee their diet. Bore off - this is how we produce football 'personalities' like Michael Owen, people.

How can you expect fireworks on the pitch if players can't let a few off in their bedroom? Anyway, I digress. We all know that top-flight players eat from the most nutritionally fulfilling menus possible.

So imagine my absolute delight when, after spotting a pizza delivery man scuttling down the Dagenham sideline mid-match, I discover that the pile of pizzas he's balancing are for the PLAYERS. And just look at how happy they are about it. I can't imagine Wayne Rooney reacts in the same way to his post-match chicken salad.

4. It makes me believe I could still make it

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I'm not having it - at 25, I could totally still make it. Just look at Kevin Phillips or Ian Wright.

OK, so I'm wrong - I'm crap - but one of the highlights of lower league football is the moments where you're sure you could do better. In the Premier League, there are gaffes that you think you'd avoid. Down in League Two, there are cock-ups that you know you're above. We're all footballers in our own heads, even goalkeepers.

And it's brilliant. That human side to the game, that element of players being distinctly human, is something the PL has lost amid its commercialism and business impacts. Laughter is a key part of the match-day survival kit, now.

5. Exclusivity

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The branding of the Premier League will have you believe that every match is unmissable. Even Stoke vs Burnley. But seemingly the whole world's watching that game. Being there is more special than watching on TV - obviously - but it's still diminished by the game's global fan-base.

Down in the divisions where nobody outside of the home terrace gives a shit - and even then it's debatable - you couldn't get a more exclusive day out. Although 'VIP' may be stretching it.

Everyone inhabiting this solar system recalls Liverpool coming from three down in the Champions League final to tie 3-3 with AC Milan, eventually winning on penalties. But few remember the arguably greater spectacle of Dagenham making the same comeback at home to Scunthorpe last January.

In the midst of an almost tropical storm - with play halted for ten minutes - and lightning striking the pitch, I was one of a handful of fans who continued to brave the worsening conditions, and was rewarded when the equalising goal was bundled in, after the ball was held up in a puddle. Now that's the beautiful game. Who else can say they were there? Exactly.

6. No more days out at The Library

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Even Jose Mourinho slags off the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge. And they have the same issues at The Emirates, Old Trafford and The Etihad.

There, many fans act like they're at the theatre - politely applauding on cue, expectantly waiting to be entertained before they offer a whoop or clap. But then what else can you expect when you treat your supporters like customers?

At Dagenham, it's very different. For a start, I can stand - two sides of the ground is terraced. And I'm about two yards from the pitch. I've actually spoken to the players, that's how close I am. Although 'spoken' may be a polite way of putting it.

It's brilliant. No more being told to sit down by stewards, or shushed by other match-goers. And there's no bloody selfie sticks, either.

7. Kids can actually go with their mates

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It's all very well making money over fist from a legion of well-intentioned, blindly-loyal, middle-aged blokes, but that short-termism could come to bite Premier League teams in the arse.

Realistically, only a minority can afford to take children to top flight games. Increasingly, the only access kids get to the top-flight is through Sky Sports. And that's fine but, soon, it's all they'll know - like most things in their lives, the younger generation will simply consume football through a screen. And then the beauty of our national game dies.

There are all sorts of initiatives set up in the PL, but not enough. Especially as it's still too expensive for parents to go. But everything is a revenue stream, especially children - why else do top clubs charge up to £600 for kids to be mascots? It's madness.

One of my highlights of switching to League Two was observing several groups of young lads circling the pitch at half-time, on their way to buying a bottle of pop and a hot dog, mischief rife in their eyes, a stream of new words no doubt still buzzing in their ears. That's what it's all about, not sat in a silent auditorium with your dad and his moany mate.