I don't get paid enough to propose a 3rd way. I'm a low paid Civil Servant, not a corrupt PL or UEFA official.
For the record, Gary Neville is a dickhead. My opinion does not match his. I wasn't completely against the original ESL, and I'd still hope something else is explored that makes football fairer and more accessible for the working class supporter.
But I also think your idea is one of the worst ideas on any subject I've ever read in my life 
I think that the original ESL idea was awful, and completely unprepared. Collecting the top clubs only from the top 5 leagues, including Man City and Chelsea, completely overlooking traditional big clubs from the smaller leagues who have even won the European Cup, was a complete bullshit.
Any professional continental league must include the clubs from all European countries (or at least the majority of them), even if that means 3 or 4 tiers with 72 to 96 clubs. Only that way the fans from all countries will consider the ESL something close to them.
There is no real chance of LFC playing the likes of Vardar Skopje or Slovan Bratislava in the ESL. These clubs will always be in the 3rd or 4th tier of the ESL, while LFC will always be in the 1st one, unless something terrible happens, and we are relegated to the lower tiers.
I know that for a football fan from England clubs even from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland don't mean much, but the reality is that the ESL would inject money into these countries' football, and will allow for them to keep their most talented young players at home for much longer. Instead of going to the academies of the English clubs at the age of 14-15, the young players from these countries will develop and play some respectable level club football in their home countries, until they are finally ready to join the very best European clubs as senior players.
This will be the same for all the countries around Europe outside the top 5. European powerhouses like Ajax or Benfica will once again compete at the top, and the likes of Red Star Belgrade or Steaua Bucharest will once again have strong teams.
To summarize, the idea about the ESL that I am pushing for is a pretty socialist idea of spreading the football wealth around entire Europe, instead of concentrating it in a few leagues, or even worse, in a few clubs.
Of course, this ESL model could only work if the state owned clubs are not allowed into the league system. Even more important, a 100% fair model of revenue sharing must be implemented, so the revenues from the ESL will be fairly distributed to all European countries, based on very strict criteria.
The salary cap is a must, with strict control of the spending, and severe punishments (including ejection from the ESL league system) for the cheating clubs.
A strong and professional refereeing organisation is also a must, with the best referees from around the World hired, as the pinnacle of the refereeing profession.
And last, but not least, the farming system. These ESL clubs, especially from the 3rd and 4th tier, will first look for talent close to their locations. It will be in their best financial interest to invest in academies in their own countries, with competent coaches and modern facilities, instead of paying big money for foreign players. Lets not forget, Red Star Belgrade were the European Cup winners with only Yugoslav players, apart from Belodedici who was a Serbian from Romania ...
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