By Matt Badcock
Sport is all about setting your sights high, dreaming big and shooting for the stars. ‘Faster, higher, stronger' in the Olympics, ‘Impossible is nothing' for Adidas.
A core beauty of English football is the opportunity to go from the bottom to the top. In theory, a team can start on a park and, over time, reach the Premier League by winning games of football.
Of course, it's not that straightforward and any club trekking up the mountain will be greeted by the carcasses of plenty of former clubs along the way.
Clubs going bust is one of football's – particularly in Non-League – most oft told tales. Rather than shock at a name slipping off the map, it's more likely these days to be met with a shrug and a muttering of, ‘Another one gone then'.
Chairmen often speak of how football plays an epic game of tug-of-war with the emotions. Sensible and successful business owners can get in a boardroom and start making rash decisions they wouldn't dream of in their day-to-day operations. It's very hard to run a club without letting that inner dreamer take over the thought process. It can be even trickier when restless fans want more too.
Realism
But there absolutely needs to be a sense of realism among some clubs in Non-League football. There are many who have big crowds and are able to pull in decent sponsorship funds because of that. As long as they keep within their means, then they can quite rightly push the boat out on a new striker and give the manager the budget he needs to bring success.
It's the same with a sugar daddy. If that money is going in with no strings attached, the wages, utility and tax bills get paid each month then, while we may not like it, it can't be argued against. Money men in football is a fact of life at all levels, whether we choose to accept it or not.
But it's the clubs whose heels are falling off the back of the treadmill who shouldn't be afraid to slow their legs down to a more manageable pace.
Sometimes running a Non-League football club looks a doddle. Shell out a load of pound notes you don't have, knock local businesses for the money they are owed and then dig out the collection buckets when it all goes sour to be bailed out.
For good measure, throw in a whinge about the fact Alexis Sanchez gets paid too much money at Manchester United, as if it's his problem the VAT bill wasn't settled.
Clubs have got to stop pleading poverty when they can still find the money to pay over the odds. Speculating to accumulate trophies is a risky game. Factoring in a potential run to the FA Cup first round is all well and good if you're happy to forget that football matches, shock horror, don't always go your way.
Shock
Players are going to take what they can, of course. There will always be people who chase a few bob in all walks of life. If they get it, who can really blame them? They are often the ones at the end of their careers who look back with regret.
Retirement isn't spent thinking about the extra £20 you earned a week, but the trophies won and memories created.
Inevitably, the knock-on impact is always felt by the clubs who run themselves sensibly, who aren't afraid to say, ‘This is our level'. For them, a competitive season with a decent cup run thrown in is just enough. Some may perceive that as lacking ambition. In some cases it may be, but for others it's the very reason to exist.
Clubs can overstretch but what is it really for? When the dream has turned into a nightmare, what have you really achieved?
Tom is a Shaw-fire success
If there's a good measure for the years ticking by, it's players younger than you retiring.
Tom Shaw, 31, hung up his boots this week to start a new job as Lead Academy coach at League Two side Lincoln City.
It doesn't seem all that long ago I first met Shaw at Gatwick Airport as the England C squad met up on an early Sunday morning in November 2009 to fly to Poland.
Even back then you could sense the former Rushden & Diamonds, Tamworth, Kidderminster Harriers, Cambridge United, Alfreton and Chester midfielder had the knowledge of the game that would suit management.
Over the years he's cut his coaching teeth in the academies at Nottingham Forest and Derby before leading the football programme at Nottingham Trent University.
In Imps' bosses Danny and Nicky Cowley, he now sees the opportunity to be in an environment that will only help his learning.
When Chester axed Jon McCarthy as manager last season, Shaw stepped into the dug-out to steer the ship for three games. It would be a daunting prospect for many with lots to think about but he took it in his stride, still making time for an interview the day before the game even as he was about to attend a wedding.
He leaves behind a very good career as a professional footballer. His next chapter will be just as successful.
Care of players so vital
The World Cup has been edge-of-the-seat drama, throwing up shock results and big controversial moments.
An incident that largely slipped under the radar was when Morocco's Nordin Amrabat hit his head hard as he fell to the ground.
Clearly dazed, the medical team's solution was to slap him around the chops and squirt water in his face to liven him up.
Football needs to catch up with other sports when it comes to how it deals with concussion. The FA have issued guidelines but concrete sanctions should be handed out if protocol isn't followed and the experts given time on the pitch to assess a player with no fear of being hurried along – as we saw in the England game against Panama when Jesse Lingard was being checked over.
When we turn up at a Non-League football ground on a Saturday afternoon, one of the last things on our minds will be a potential head injury to a player.
But these are serious risks. The brain can recover from a concussion if it's managed right. If it isn't, the consequences don't bear thinking about.
*This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper which is available every Sunday and Monday
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