Today's standard

[Brett Angell Delight]

….i’m a big believer in ‘street football’ truly engineered the quality of yesteryear. It’s not rocket science, if we weren’t in school we were playing footy. We honed our skillset with a ball stuck to our feet for 10 hours a day. We loved it, we became talented.

Taking control of a football on uneven streets or ‘ollers’, endless completion against your mates. Nowadays, it’s Academy football for the few a couple of nights per week, TV and computer games the rest of the time. Clubs take youngsters and make it feel like they’re doing parents a favour when they should be treating it as a privilege.

The quality is not as good from the top of the game to the bottom. The reasons are obvious.

Some boomer nonsense this, mate.

Footy players today are 10x the athletes they were in your sepia-toned, horse-drawn day. The game is quicker and played with far more skill.

I know change is confusing as we get older, but anyone who is of the opinion that the game has massively declined from the point when players had nicknames like “Chopper” and had 7 pints of stout and a pack of woodbines after the game can get in the bin, frankly.

 

[matty1878]

Hardly, I have all my own teeth!

you sure

 

[T LEAFE]

Some boomer nonsense this, mate.

Footy players today are 10x the athletes they were in your sepia-toned, horse-drawn day. The game is quicker and played with far more skill.

I know change is confusing as we get older, but anyone who is of the opinion that the game has massively declined from the point when players had nicknames like “Chopper” and had 7 pints of stout and a pack of woodbines after the game can get in the bin, frankly.

But in those days the pitches had little grass. They were mud heaps.
And no technical 100 support teams to blow their noses.
Current footballers may be technically better but they are bloody fussed over and divers and primma Donna's compared to the old days

 

[Brett Angell Delight]

But in those days the pitches had little grass. They were mud heaps.
And no technical 100 support teams to blow their noses.
Current footballers may be technically better but they are bloody fussed over and divers and primma Donna's compared to the old days

But the product is better, yes? The argument here seems to be that the fact players have more people looking after their wellbeing makes the game worse somehow?

Again: boomer logic. “We had it tough so we insist that everyone else does, even if the option exists for them not to.”

 

[Benno]

Of course, everything is better now and that’s true with most things. It’s quicker, players are more professional and disciplined. The game is so quick now through what we know about nutrition, recovery, red zone etc which is of course developed through the funding in the game.

That being said i do think there has been a drop off in quality this season.

 

[Bryan+]

My brother went the game today. Hes home from Oz and been there years. After the game he remarked how poor the players are now. It got me really thinking that the game is at its poorest ive ever seen in 50 years. Playing on bowling greens and still cant make a simple pass or dribble or even stay on their feet. Players like Ndaiye used to be everywhere.

Just out of curiosity which stand was he in?

 

[Eggs]

Some boomer nonsense this, mate.

Footy players today are 10x the athletes they were in your sepia-toned, horse-drawn day. The game is quicker and played with far more skill.

I know change is confusing as we get older, but anyone who is of the opinion that the game has massively declined from the point when players had nicknames like “Chopper” and had 7 pints of stout and a pack of woodbines after the game can get in the bin, frankly.

….definitely agree with this in the main. I’m old but I accept that there’s more athleticism these days. I do disagree with ‘it’s played with more skill’.

Saying that, even back then the best footballers tended to be the best runners (sprinters, cross-country etc) but nothing like these blokes today. Same applies to rugby etc.

 

[Hinchcliffe's Corner]

The game definitely evolves, but if the players of our 80s sides for example had today's training facilities, sports science, coaching and all that comes with being a modern athlete they would be 10 times the players they were then. Honing natural talent is still the main principle in defining quality.

 

[T LEAFE]

But the product is better, yes? The argument here seems to be that the fact players have more people looking after their wellbeing makes the game worse somehow?

Again: boomer logic. “We had it tough so we insist that everyone else does, even if the option exists for them not to.”

I don't believe the product is better
I watch non league now because it's 100% commitment and bloody good skills and entertainment...and all for a fiver
I watch some boring Prem games on tv after watching much more entertainment and excitement at non league level

 

[Street end man]

I think crocodile Dundee is crap.
Tell him to put that in his pipe and smoke it

 

[Lanolin]

One of the worst takes I’ve ever seen that, and considering I’m on here most days that is mightily impressive.

 

[Benno]

I don't believe the product is better
I watch non league now because it's 100% commitment and bloody good skills and entertainment...and all for a fiver
I watch some boring Prem games on tv after watching much more entertainment and excitement at non league level

I agree with this - it’s only really everton games i stick with. Otherwise im mostly bored and ending up doing something else.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

IT WAS BETTER IN MY DAY

 

[Brett Angell Delight]

I don't believe the product is better
I watch non league now because it's 100% commitment and bloody good skills and entertainment...and all for a fiver
I watch some boring Prem games on tv after watching much more entertainment and excitement at non league level

Eye of the beholder and all that. If your own preference for entertainment is non-league level, valid though that is, I would suggest that’s not an argument for an objective decline of the game itself.

 

[MACCA75]

Yeah it’s fine to say you preferred footy in the old days of thundering tackles and muddy pitches.

Nobody can seriously say it was technically better though, thats absolute boomer lunacy.