Mick Quinn: "The biggest wage I ever earned during my playing days was £2,000 a week at Coventry City.
"This was in the formative days of the Premier League in the early 1990s. That was about par for the course.
"I was the second-best paid player at the club and I wasn’t complaining about my lot.
"At Newcastle, my salary had been £1,100 a week. Not ridiculous, but certainly better than the man in the street.
"Within 14 months of me signing for Coventry, Gary McAllister arrived at the club. He became the top-paid player on £25,000 a week just as I was about to leave for Greece.
"I never thought a player in England would earn six figures in a week. The rumours started a few years ago that this was now a reality at Chelsea, Manchester United and then Manchester City.
"And yet now we have our first £300,000-a-week footballer in Wayne Rooney. I find that hard to get my head around.
Now there are few bigger fans of Rooney than me. But he’s not worth that. Nobody is. Even Lionel Messi.
"I think it’s mad. I would hope the fans I played in front of could identify with me, even if they knew I was probably making more money than them.
"How can a bloke who works nine-to-five, never mind someone on the dole, identify with a guy who has signed a £75m contract?
"Newcastle wouldn’t dream of paying these sort of wages and I actually don’t have a problem with that. I’ve never seen an issue with Mike Ashley putting in place a wage structure. I wish a few others would follow suit.
"You can show ambition and not pay your players £300,000 a week.
"My problem with United is that we don’t try in the cups and seem to settle for an average league position. Again, you don’t have to spent tens of millions more to improve the team.
"It costs nothing to change a mindset. Sorry for banging on about this, but it was hard to watch another FA Cup weekend pass by with Newcastle not being involved."