Brighton beat the City, Villa are just sh*tty

Nobody really cares about the Carling Cup. I'm not going to blame this on foreign investment, or Sky, or Jimmy Hill as, in my view, it has always been English football's poor relation. So much so that it is the unwanted illegitimate son kept in the cupboard under the stairs and fed just bread a water.

But, even though it has always been a joke, it was still enjoyable to see Manchester City and Aston Villa dumped out of the tournament last night by lower-league opposition. And before anybody asks "Why Aston Villa?" I should explain that even if their owner, Randy Lerner, is a decent man with his heart in the right place, he is still a foreign investor (albeit one worth a piddly £600million or so!).

Of course there is a problem with one part of this equation. While Brighton and Hove Albion are a genuine lower-level club, QPR have more money than Villa - and more money than most of the Premier League clubs. Heck, don't they have a player on-loan from Real Madrid who set up the goal last night?

This is why the death of football is inevitable, in my opinion. Money is now rife throughout the game and there is a growing imbalance. Manchester City - not a true top-tier club (yet!) - can outspend every other club. QPR can outspend most, and if they were in the Premier League they probably would. Yet Villa aren't short of cash - although in relative terms they are in danger of joining other teams who are financially rag-and-bone men!

But, hey, at least he's not Doug Ellis and at least one of their directors posts on Villa fan forums. Hopefully that will make up for midtable existence until football goes "bang". And that's not a Villa thing, but something will happen to many teams; it happened in Scotland years ago. Clubs north of the border don't exist to compete or win, they exist to exist.

Sad, very sad.