State of Football

[Maximus]

This was meant to be on my globalisation thread but I took 2 minutes too long to post the poll options.

[Bootboy100]

I would break it down into 2 areas.

 

The quality of football on offer in general nowadays is better than 15 - 20 years ago (I cant go back any further)

 

From a fans perspective I think the fans were better back in the day than nowadays. Its too commercial and full of suits. The camaradarie between fans has also disappeared through the years which is a shame.

[Alan_R]

I voted 'better back in the day'

 

although I'm relatively young, so depends what you mean by 'back in the day'.

 

My favourite players to watch have retired. But I remember watching the likes of Zola, Leonardo and Boban play, and as a neutral in those games I remember enjoying the football on show alot more 'back then'.

[Rick Grimes]

money is ripping the soul out of football, period.

 

yes, if you want to watch the same teams compete for the Champions League year after year, then its raised the standards. if you want variety then its not. it'll be interesting to see how happy people are about that when its 30 years of the same instead of the near 10 years it is just now.

[Maximus]

The only thing IMO that has improved in reccent times is that the players are now a lot healthier, not many beer gut sporting strikers or chain smoking wingers around the game these days but I can't agree with those who say the actual quality of play has improved. Too many teams have the financial implications in the back of their minds when they step onto the pitch instead of just trying to play football and beat the opposition, this has certainly affected the game here in the UK IMO, teams are often too afraid to play attacking football with very few exceptions. For me the early 90s was perhaps football's peak, during my lifetime anyway, and it's been downhill from there. There was a thread on here a few weeks ago about the 90s Ajax team and it had me longing for the game to have as much excitment now as it did back then, teams had a chance to grow, I fondly remember clubs like Ajax, Samp, Depor and Parma putting together some cracking line-ups that were a joy to watch. Now it's hard to keep track of things with players moving in and out the revolving doors at record speed and the top teams packing their squads with 40+ top players, it's madness.