We've all experienced it, surely. The relief when an expected payment lobs into your account on a Friday afternoon and makes the world seem a much brighter place. That feeling would have washed welcomely over a whole host of officials, executives, staff and players of the A League clubs when Foxtel made good on their overdue quarterly payment to the FFA, late last week.
That gesture suggests long-term support may continue with the broadcast partner, and there is a chance of the season being completed in July, perhaps. In truth, the big-picture news is far more important to the code than "knocking over" the remaining fixtures of the 2019-20 season.
You could argue the total opposite is true in the big leagues of Europe, where promotion and relegation is massively important financially to the clubs in contention, and the make-up of places in European Cup competitions. Finishing the season may well avoid all sorts of legal action, and acrimony, and ensure a deserved place in history for teams like Liverpool, who were well on track to break records, and perhaps enter discussions about the best sides of the Premier League era.
There can be no asterisk against Liverpool's name, in my view, whatever happens with the restrictions regarding COVID-19 and the season's completion. They have been clearly the dominant force this time around, on the back of a monumental head-to-head battle with a celebrated Manchester City team, in which both teams were pretty much flawless in the last 12 games of the season prior.
That screams the sort of consistent excellence and notably fierce rivalries that pushed the other contenders for the best team of the Premier League era. Is it Manchester United's treble-winning team of 1998-99, Arsenal's "Invincibles" of 2003-04?
Had Roman Abramovich and Jose Mourinho landed at Chelsea five years earlier, would that have happened?
Would any of those sides have coped with the sustained possession game of Pep's Manchester City? Could they have played through the pressure and high line, and in turn disrupted City's composure? Would they have dealt with the mobility and athleticism of Klopp's Liverpool?
I'm a firm believer that the great players of any era would develop, evolve, re-invent themselves to star in current conditions, but I also believe that sometimes the best results don't always marry up to the best teams. Sometimes experience overtakes talent, sometimes luck plays its part, often mentality, confidence absolutely.
United have the most consistent record in the Premier League era, and won three league titles in a row from 1998-99 through 2000-01, but had they lost the '98-99 Champions League final, a game in which few dispute they were comprehensively outplayed by Bayern Munich, how would their record stack up against Arsenal, who won the league and cup double in '97-98 and '01-02, either side of United's three in a row, and then went through the 2003-04 season unbeaten?
Pretty bloody close I reckon, and not too much doubt in my mind that one pretty fortunate victory tilts the historical recall of two great sides. Within five or so years United had a front line including Ronaldo, Rooney and van Nistelrooy. With due respect to Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer?
In 2004-05 and 2005-06 Mourinho, funded by Abramovich, halted the United/Arsenal dominance, and given his record against Ferguson and Wenger in those early years, he would have been hard to bet against in an imaginary one-off game.
The frugal Arsenal defence, and artistry of Henry and Bergkamp versus the midfield balance of Beckham, Scholes, Keane and Giggs?
Throw in a cosmopolitan Chelsea, and when we debate the modern-day giants, it's a matter of taste really. Perhaps we can examine the individuals next week and discuss.
