ALMOST 15 years on, Sky Sports televised its 1,000th live Premiership fixture on Thursday night.

Tottenham's 1-1 draw with Blackburn was perhaps not the most appealing way to reach the milestone, but there aren't too many matches left this season that would have done it justice.

Football has changed an awful lot since the first game in 1992. Teddy Sheringham's winner for Nottingham Forest against Liverpool opened up the new era and there have been many similarly outstanding strikes since.

But, just as Forest found to their cost by May 1993 when they dropped out of the top-flight, the riches the Sky investment has brought to the sport has not always been beneficial.

Player wages reached new levels and attendances flew through the roof and it all seemed good. But the plights of Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United have proved money can't always buy happiness.

It is a professional game and its performers are entitled to earn as much as they can but greed does play a large part in the game. The prerogative, however, lies with theclubs' owners to ensure bad management does not cost their club dearly - just as it did with Leeds a few years back.

The emergence of Setanta TV next season means there will be even more cash swilling around the Premiership.

It is necessary, though, for the 20 members of the Premier League to ensure the ridiculous monetary figures do not have an adverse effect on our national sport.

As things stand, with the curtain ready to come down on the league season tomorrow, attendances have fallen.

The argument of the cost to the supporter has been flying around for years, while the level of entertainment has also been cited as a reason for a drop in interest at many grounds. The sheer number of matches being screened on television is the biggest problem.

Those who love football will never demand an end to live games on the box. Being able to sit on the sofa with a beer or go round to the pub for a few pints will forever be on the agenda.

But when there is a fixture screened every night, or five matches over a weekend, the appeal suddenly fades.

Setanta's introduction into our lives will mean even more opportunities to watch from the armchair - it's hardly going to help attendances is it?

Setanta will be screening 46 games next season, Sky the remaining 92. There will also be a further 30-odd matches shown at 3pm on a Saturday in some local round the corner - although that is supposedly illegal in the UK under a UEFA ruling.

The three-year deal will raise around £82m and is a further indication that money talks in football. Let's just hope the standard of English football doesn't head in the other direction.

At a time when our national team is failing, the last thing we need is more investment in foreign players.

Perhaps this summer will see a switch from the multi-million pound transfer fees on the likes of Andrei Shevchenko and more emphasis placed on the Academy system. Perhaps not.

But the more British youngsters clubs can bring on to the Premiership scene the better it will be for football in this country. Middlesbrough, for one, have been great advocates of this.

Worryingly Sir Alex Ferguson is understood to be unimpressed by most of the youngsters who got Manchester United through to the FA Youth Cup final this season. If United - always a fine example at nurturing young talent - are lacking in their production line then something is starkly wrong.

Clubs need to reinvest millions back into their Academy system and scouting network, otherwise Steve McClaren and his successors will never be able to lead us to glory.

And when Sky and Setanta pass the 2,000 mark in another decade or so then will anything have been learned? Let's hope so, otherwise talk will still be cheap and dreams of success for the national team will remain unfulfilled.