Jonathan Ridgway

This is about the football food chain @Carra23 spoke about. It's very real and, regrettably, it has made upward mobility almost impossible (except by rule-breaking on an industrial scale, of course). Even for a club of Aston Villa's size and historic pedigree, with a brilliant coach, to talk of challenging that mega-rich elite — protected by rules reinforcing the huge financial divides that have opened up over the past two decades — causes a welcome jolt. "What, you're actually going to try to challenge for the biggest prizes? You're actually going to try to break into that group over the long term?" #AVFC should be applauded for trying to do that. It's important to spell out what they're up against. Even in these glory days under Emery, they haven't come within 20 points of winning the Premier League. It's incredibly hard to get for anyone outside that mega-rich elite to compete — particularly when those clubs keep coming for your best players. A new deal for Emery will send out a powerful "Hands off" message to #MUFC and anyone else. But the food chain is real, as are the obstacles that Villa and any other would-be challengers face nytimes.com/athletic/7760012…