IT’S been a busy start to 2018 on planet football, with Premier and Football League matches to kick-off the new year coinciding with the reopening of the transfer window on January 1 and, of course, the FA Cup third round being played this past weekend.

The first game of the round saw Liverpool host Everton, with the Reds’ new £75m signing Virgil van Dijk making his debut, and scoring the winner, in the 2-1 Merseyside derby victory.

The following afternoon saw a slightly less glamorous fixture take place at the Bowl, as FC Clacton hosted Gorleston.

There was rather less drama, too, with a goal in each half settling a fairly uneventful contest 2-0 in favour of the visitors.

Jake Plane’s long-range thunderbolt that rattled the crossbar was about as close as we came to troubling the scoring on an afternoon that I’m sure won’t live too long in the memory of those who were there to witness it.

As I write this column on Monday afternoon, Liverpool have now recouped the money spent on Van Dijk, and added to their own January transfer pot, with the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for an eye-watering £142m.

The figures are truly staggering and while many will no doubt nonchalantly shrug their shoulders while accepting that these exorbitant transfer fees are just a part of the modern game, it’s hard for someone such as myself not to feel slightly disillusioned knowing, as I do, that a small percentage of that money could safeguard the non-league game in this country for a generation.

Though we too have also played in the FA Cup this season, entering the competition at the extra preliminary round stage back in August, I couldn’t feel further removed from what I witnessed when watching the game at Anfield on Friday evening.

For as long as Premier League clubs continue to essentially govern the game in this country it will be impossible for the FA to act, but wouldn’t it be good to see some more of this incredible wealth distributed lower down the footballing pyramid?

If some of these players’ salaries are to be believed, a day’s pay for them would keep a non-league club at our level very nearly in business for an entire season.

Just think about that folks.

Come on you Seasiders!