THE Premier League season will reach its climax on Sunday with very little left to play for.

Chelsea were crowned champions three weeks ago, while the four Champions League places are pretty much set in stone.

All eyes will be on Hull City, where Steve Bruce’s men need to win and hope Newcastle fail to beat West Ham at home to leapfrog them and survive.

With the faint chance Manchester United could jump above Arsenal into third place with a victory, albeit if the Gunners lose heavily at home to West Brom, you have to feel the Tigers’ two-year stay in the top flight is coming to an end.

The only other issue still to decide are the Europa League places but, let's be honest, not even the three clubs involved – Liverpool, Tottenham and Southampton – really care about that.

So it hardly has the recipe for a classic season finale.

The fact is, despite all the thrills and spills along the way, the Premier League has again proved to be all too predictable.

Two of the sides that were promoted from the Championship last season – QPR and Burnley – have been relegated, while normal service has been resumed at the summit, with the highest paid players in the Premier League jostling for the Champions League places.

Manchester City, United, Chelsea and Arsenal all appeared in the top 10 of the world's biggest spending sports clubs in the annual Global Sports Salaries Survey this week.

It's clear that, in sport at least, you get what you pay for.

The survey showed City players earn the highest salaries in the Premier League and the third highest in the world, with an average monthly pay-packet of £96,445 and an average annual salary of £5,015,122.

United players came sixth overall on the world list, Chelsea eighth and Arsenal 10th.

Out of the top 10 best-paid sporting sides, eight were European football clubs, the other two were American baseball giants Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.

I wrongly assumed American sportsmen would be the highest paid, but the survey did produce an interesting anomaly.

While no NBA (American basketball) teams could force their way into the top 10, the league as a whole boasts the highest average annual salary, with NBA players averaging £2.67m per year compared to the Premier League's £2.23m.

That is presumably due to some kind of salary cap and could offer an interesting example for England’s top football league to follow.

In the last 10 years, six different teams have been crowned NBA champions, compared with three in the Premier League.

Since 1992, when the Premier League was formed, it has had just five different champions, compared with eight in the NBA.

No amount of tinkering with the rules or financial fair play penalties will ever eradicate the impact of money in sport.

But if football in this country ever wants to return to the days when a maverick manager like Brian Clough could upset the establishment and take teams like Derby and Nottingham Forest to the title, then something has to change.

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NEIL BONNAR: Give Sterling and Kane time before hanging silly price tags around their necks

PRICE tags of £50million for Raheem Sterling and £45m for Harry Kane are ridiculous.

Both have had one good season – Sterling's was 2013/14 – but such is the excitable reaction to promising young English players that their valuation is wildly exaggerated.

Young English players have a habit of promising world class for a year or two then delivering mediocrity; note Adam Johnson, Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair, Ross Barkley, Luke Shaw and Andros Townsend.

There are not many like Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard who fulfil their early potential.

Form is temporary and class is permanent. The lessons of history tell us to give these kids a bit of permanence before judging their class.

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DAVID PYE: BBC's FA Cup final blast from the past is most welcome

I AM already looking forward to FA Cup final day – especially after the BBC announced a return to a full day of programming surrounding it.

It was one of the big highlights for me as a kid – getting up early to see the reports from the team hotels, the quirky features and the helicopter following the team buses to the stadium.

It really was a day in front of the TV to relish for a football-mad kid and it’s back next week.

I don’t really care who wins between Arsenal and Villa – I am just ready to relish the occasion on the box and relive my childhood for one day.

David Pye

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ROBERT KELLY: Great managers have unique personalities

BRIAN Clough, Bobby Robson, Jose Mourinho – everybody loves football managers who are characters, and they tend to enjoy success.

And it was great to see Louis Van Gaal breaking away from his monotone, robust, all-powerful persona and take to the stage at the Manchester United's awards dinner this week.

Now that the curtain is coming down on the season it was fantastic to see him in this light.

He is no stranger to the big stage and one thing for sure is that he has the passion to succeed in England just like he has in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

I will be looking forward to him trying to attract more big names to these shores to battle it out with Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Manuel Pellegrini... if he stays at City.