Southampton PodJockey Matt Brennan is fed up with the whole Bosman transfer ruling which sees the Premiership pick up the lower leagues finest for next to nothing.

Nathan Dyer is a young hotshot for us at Southampton. He started the season well and by doing that - he has attracted a lot of interest from other clubs. Mainly the teams interested are those in the Premier League. They have money to throw around - and with new money coming in from abroad they will keep on making profits. But what about us, not only us though other teams in the Football league are struggling financially. We do not receive the big money from TV revenue. Smaller clubs do though bring youngsters through their academy systems. So why in a day and age where we have so many clubs nearing administration do we have a silly Bosman ruling that states if a player is under 24 then they can leave but a fee will be negotiated between the two clubs at a tribunal?

I can see people arguing back at me saying this is a good thing for smaller teams but is it? Look at Saints. At the end of last season Leon Best left us to join Coventry. A team who at the time were arguably in a worst financial position than us! A tribunal agreed a fee of around six hundred thousand pounds should be paid to us. Yet this money did not come when it should of due to the fact Coventry could not afford it. Why should a tribunal decide a fee, when they clearly a club cannot afford to purchase the player. Another real kick in the face for me around the Leon Best transfer was that this January, Nottingham Forest offered Coventry £1.25 million pounds for him. Double that of which we got! Only six months after he left! He has hardly even set the world a light at Coventry either.

Now my argument goes back to Nathan Dyer. A player who is clearly worth more than Leon Best is now. Nathan has yet to sign a contract with Southampton yet despite knowing it will run out at the end of this season. He will inevitably leave us for Spurs or some other Premier League side. But of course as he left without a contract the fee will be knocked down significantly and a Premier League team who can afford big amounts of money, wins yet again. They get a great young player who we have paid to develop and nurture, and we get next to nothing. So I ask all fans out there, whether they are Saints fans, or fans of a Premier League side, one simple question. Is it too much to ask that if Premier League sides scour the Football League for young talent that they should have to pay the right price? I understand that players do leave for big figures, but not always.

Another point of course is maybe the whole system should be changed. Maybe players under the age of twenty-four should be on contracts which have a clause involved stating if they leave they are exempt from the Bosman ruling. Surely it is only fair on the teams that mean so much to people, actually survive and do not collapse all down to the pure business like state of the Premier League?