The New Golden Age of Football?

[Nuggets]

What about AMN

[Pat Rice in Short Shorts]

What about AMN

A fine utility player for us. A Newcastle or Palace starter.

[theHotHead]

Fine?? Milner is an example of a fine utility player, AMN is an emergency stop gap. Should be nowhere near the Arsenal first team, had Wenger not eroded Squad quality.

[VCC]

Fine?? Milner is an example of a fine utility player, AMN is an emergency stop gap. Should be nowhere near the Arsenal first team, had Wenger not eroded Squad quality.

100% correct

[Pat Rice in Short Shorts]

Fine?? Milner is an example of a fine utility player, AMN is an emergency stop gap. Should be nowhere near the Arsenal first team, had Wenger not eroded Squad quality.

He sure came in useful as a DM back when we had none. Nothing special in the football mentality category I agree, but deserved a chance despite his mother.

Arteta sure does not trust him at RB.

[elkanofan]

This is by far the worst generation of youngsters i have ever seen.

This generation is necessary being given chances because the 1994-1998 born players has been a total disaster. This gen should have already produced players better than Messi and CR7 but have failed.

Only Mbappe has become elite of all the players in this age range. Players like him should be occurring more, the fact they aren't is a big worry. In the 90s very early 00s we had literally 2-4 Mbappes wonderkids emerge every year.

The 1999-2002 born generation will have more space to breakthrough since there have been so few proper elite players in this age range. The 2000 born players will provide the best but they aren't learning the game with the same depth as before. We are seeing this with Saka, he's been excellent but listen to Dejan on this, he know his shit. He's a very good younger player for us but when people learn how to stop him will define him more how he copes with it.

Please don't group Canadian's like Alphonso Davies into this golden gen, i like him but watching him since he broke through at 15 with the Whitecaps he's really not that good, lacks technique and vision. Very power orientated player. I hope he does well. David looks ok, raw talent atm. Canada still has a very long way to go. My Jamaica team is still better.

England always overrated their young players and now is no different, i think Sancho breaks that mould, CHO is the other with potential, Foden is 50/50 (flawed, needs gametime) rest you got heavily overhyped players like Mount. I know people also getting overexcited over Trent, he's doing very well in a good team but nothing special, has good delivery, solid physique, decent technique but is a disaster defensivley

Some nations have severe issues in certain positions like Germany and Spain have few to no strikers emerging at a world level. In general the new generation of strikers are poor and lack holdup play. Haaland has been quality, for now, but will slow down next season as defences target him. He will face some struggles, how he improves from this will define him more than this excellent recent honeymoon period.

This is the opposite to a golden generation. This a bad generation in which we are putting heavy faith in the 1999-2002 gen to somehow reach the levels Messi and CR7 have set. Since Neymar, Balotelli and Pogba especially have failed to reach their levels on a consistent basis, sadly due to the narcissism we see today which doesn't give them the motivation to become immortal when you receive such riches and fame in this day and age.

[Pat Rice in Short Shorts]

This is by far the worst generation of youngsters i have ever seen.

This generation is necessary being given chances because the 1994-1998 born players has been a total disaster. This gen should have already produced players better than Messi and CR7 but have failed.

Only Mbappe has become elite of all the players in this age range. Players like him should be occurring more, the fact they aren't is a big worry. In the 90s very early 00s we had literally 2-4 Mbappes wonderkids emerge every year.

The 1999-2002 born generation will have more space to breakthrough since there have been so few proper elite players in this age range. The 2000 born players will provide the best but they aren't learning the game with the same depth as before. We are seeing this with Saka, he's been excellent but listen to Dejan on this, he know his shit. He's a very good younger player for us but when people learn how to stop him will define him more how he copes with it.

Please don't group Canadian's like Alphonso Davies into this golden gen, i like him but watching him since he broke through at 15 with the Whitecaps he's really not that good, lacks technique and vision. Very power orientated player. I hope he does well. David looks ok, raw talent atm. Canada still has a very long way to go. My Jamaica team is still better.

England always overrated their young players and now is no different, i think Sancho breaks that mould, CHO is the other with potential, Foden is 50/50 (flawed, needs gametime) rest you got heavily overhyped players like Mount. I know people also getting overexcited over Trent, he's doing very well in a good team but nothing special, has good delivery, solid physique, decent technique but is a disaster defensivley

Some nations have severe issues in certain positions like Germany and Spain have few to no strikers emerging at a world level. In general the new generation of strikers are poor and lack holdup play. Haaland has been quality, for now, but will slow down next season as defences target him. He will face some struggles, how he improves from this will define him more than this excellent recent honeymoon period.

This is the opposite to a golden generation. This a bad generation in which we are putting heavy faith in the 1999-2002 gen to somehow reach the levels Messi and CR7 have set. Since Neymar, Balotelli and Pogba especially have failed to reach their levels on a consistent basis, sadly due to the narcissism we see today which doesn't give them the motivation to become immortal when you receive such riches and fame in this day and age.

I disagree. Young players like Martinelli, Saka, Sancho etc are so gifted at 17 now there is no comparison with say 15 or 20 years ago. I do agree that many will fail because of their mental make up. Have seen that far too often. But you get a kid like Saka or Martinelli, who seem to have their heads about them at such a young age they really cannot miss. I think beyond the talent and technical skill these kids have by age 16 or 17 is a result of the way academies operate now, they also stress life skills. The other thing is that in the US there is a far larger pool of kids playing the game at organized levels and being coached and developed properly. Good athletes are not all going to American football or basketball now.

And you are right that Messi and Ronaldo are very special in any generation, my point is that the overall level of play has and will keep getting better. I sure enjoy watching all of the young talent in every league now. One thing about sports is that everyone ios faster, stronger and more knowledgeable than in the past.

[elkanofan]

I disagree. Young players like Martinelli, Saka, Sancho etc are so gifted at 17

Firstly Sancho is 19 and soon to be 20. Saka & Martinelli both 18 going on 19. Sancho has been playing pro football now 4 years so is coming into his peak years soon enough already.

now there is no comparison with say 15 or 20 years ago. I do agree that many will fail because of their mental make up. Have seen that far too often. But you get a kid like Saka or Martinelli, who seem to have their heads about them at such a young age they really cannot miss. I think beyond the talent and technical skill these kids have by age 16 or 17 is a result of the way academies operate now, they also stress life skills.

15-20 years ago Rooney, CR7, Schweinstiger, Zlatan, Cassano, Quaresma, all had similar and even more of an impact in the game than Saka, Martinelli and Sancho have, they are all better and more advanced than the players you mentioned. Sancho struggles in big games still, did ok vs Barca and decent at home vs PSG but was hauled off after 35 minutes he was that bad vs Bayern. I like him but hes got a lot to learn and should stay at Dortmund to continue developing You fallen for the media rhetoric propaganda. They are saying anything and everything to promote the product of football which they sell to you. These media companies who push pundits to all about how great all the sports science is, data analysis, blah, blah, blah is most importantly to get you to buy the TV or Online Subscription, buy the 4th or 5th jersey, literally rehashed from the past or a pointless money making 4th kit dubbed (Special edition).

Where football has fallen downhill is the changing of tacking laws, they are way too strict now compared to before. Real defending has been killed as a skill. VVD is the words best but still cannot stop ball watching, he gets away with it since the modern defender is known more for his passing ability and technique to bring the ball out than actual never say die, positional based defending where as long as you won the ball it was ok and you didn't get a f***ing yellow for 1 bad tackle or sent off for 2.

The other thing is that in the US there is a far larger pool of kids playing the game at organized levels and being coached and developed properly. Good athletes are not all going to American football or basketball now.

And you are right that Messi and Ronaldo are very special in any generation,

The hype around these young players is because the 1994-1998 generation have been a disaster. There is no excuse for why none player born in this age range hasn't already surpassed Messi or CR7! Both Messi and CR7 are worse than they were from 22-26 years old so where is the excuse for their being no new versions of these players at this age? It shows the game s clearly declining, but the media companies need that subscription money to keep in profit and keep you distracted for the financial turmoil we see across the world right now.

Guys like Saka, Martinelli are being hyped up to keep you interested and are sold to you as if we haven't already had much better young players in the past. In terms of accessing which of these will be a legend in the future, well none will really, none have shown anything new we haven't seen before or been so clearly world class from just their first or 2nd season like Mbappe, he is the only player coming into his peak who was genuine world class just like we were used to in the 90's with guys like Ronaldo, Kluivert, Owen. Straight away boom he's ready! You don't see this in this generation.

Ox was just as impressive 8-9 years ago, hes done ok in his career but he's not world beater and he's brought nothing new to football at all.

my point is that the overall level of play has and will keep getting better. I sure enjoy watching all of the young talent in every league now. One thing about sports is that everyone ios faster, stronger and more knowledgeable than in the past.

The game was arguably faster in the late 90's early 00's. The change to now is there are far less tackles and passing has got worse in general for most players. Check some of the best teams ever in Serie A during the 90's to early mid 00's, they would kill you with just quality passing and vision, way more advanced than the machines we see now. Back then games were more of a chessmatch in ability and freeform mercurial talent, this was the era of superstars, man marking and vision. Now its athletes out-pressuring the opposition, the game is now littered with mistakes. This rhetoric regarding sports science makes you accept the crap you see today and not call it the crap it actually is.

Athletes are not a new thing, they have been around since the dawn of time, they have been around in every era of football. Where you need to start thinking is why is it all of a sudden the game is now full of athletes compared to the artists before? If the best athletes always made the best footballers then why is it we had legends like Socrates and Cruyff where were heavy smokers, sometimes before and during half time of matches?

[Dejan]

This is by far the worst generation of youngsters i have ever seen.

This generation is necessary being given chances because the 1994-1998 born players has been a total disaster. This gen should have already produced players better than Messi and CR7 but have failed.

Only Mbappe has become elite of all the players in this age range. Players like him should be occurring more, the fact they aren't is a big worry. In the 90s very early 00s we had literally 2-4 Mbappes wonderkids emerge every year.

The 1999-2002 born generation will have more space to breakthrough since there have been so few proper elite players in this age range. The 2000 born players will provide the best but they aren't learning the game with the same depth as before. We are seeing this with Saka, he's been excellent but listen to Dejan on this, he know his shit. He's a very good younger player for us but when people learn how to stop him will define him more how he copes with it.

Please don't group Canadian's like Alphonso Davies into this golden gen, i like him but watching him since he broke through at 15 with the Whitecaps he's really not that good, lacks technique and vision. Very power orientated player. I hope he does well. David looks ok, raw talent atm. Canada still has a very long way to go. My Jamaica team is still better.

England always overrated their young players and now is no different, i think Sancho breaks that mould, CHO is the other with potential, Foden is 50/50 (flawed, needs gametime) rest you got heavily overhyped players like Mount. I know people also getting overexcited over Trent, he's doing very well in a good team but nothing special, has good delivery, solid physique, decent technique but is a disaster defensivley

Some nations have severe issues in certain positions like Germany and Spain have few to no strikers emerging at a world level. In general the new generation of strikers are poor and lack holdup play. Haaland has been quality, for now, but will slow down next season as defences target him. He will face some struggles, how he improves from this will define him more than this excellent recent honeymoon period.

This is the opposite to a golden generation. This a bad generation in which we are putting heavy faith in the 1999-2002 gen to somehow reach the levels Messi and CR7 have set. Since Neymar, Balotelli and Pogba especially have failed to reach their levels on a consistent basis, sadly due to the narcissism we see today which doesn't give them the motivation to become immortal when you receive such riches and fame in this day and age.

I disagree. Young players like Martinelli, Saka, Sancho etc are so gifted at 17 now there is no comparison with say 15 or 20 years ago. I do agree that many will fail because of their mental make up. Have seen that far too often. But you get a kid like Saka or Martinelli, who seem to have their heads about them at such a young age they really cannot miss. I think beyond the talent and technical skill these kids have by age 16 or 17 is a result of the way academies operate now, they also stress life skills. The other thing is that in the US there is a far larger pool of kids playing the game at organized levels and being coached and developed properly. Good athletes are not all going to American football or basketball now.

And you are right that Messi and Ronaldo are very special in any generation, my point is that the overall level of play has and will keep getting better. I sure enjoy watching all of the young talent in every league now. One thing about sports is that everyone ios faster, stronger and more knowledgeable than in the past.

Soz mate you are incredibly overrating saka. Possibly even martinelli

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[theHotHead]

Yeah I think you have got it all wrong too Pat Rice , the overall standard of play has not increased at all.

Saka and Martinelli are not unique. 15-20 years ago, (ok 30 years ago) Tony Adams got his Arsenal debut aged 17 and became Arsenal captain at 21. Then you had players like Lee Sharpe, Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Nicolas Anelka, Wayne Rooney, Ceac Fabregas, RVP, all brilliant young players and there are a whole lot more if I could be bothered to do the research.

[Marsbar100]

I

[Marsbar100]

I think in the pl the teams are a lot better coached now, wenger reviloutinised the prem with his diets, injecting players with minerals and vitamins, mourinho revoultinised the pl in his own way with a lot of emphaiss on team shape, making everyone revert from 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3, now its been further evolved with the pressing game from klopp and pep. In the 90s the pl was more open and end to end with all teams playing a 4-4-2 and most of the teams being filled with british players.

[Pat Rice in Short Shorts]

Yeah I think you have got it all wrong too Pat Rice , the overall standard of play has not increased at all.

Saka and Martinelli are not unique. 15-20 years ago, (ok 30 years ago) Tony Adams got his Arsenal debut aged 17 and became Arsenal captain at 21. Then you had players like Lee Sharpe, Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Nicolas Anelka, Wayne Rooney, Ceac Fabregas, RVP, all brilliant young players and there are a whole lot more if I could be bothered to do the research.

Certainly they are not unique. But I do feel that the overall quality of player is better globally, and as such the team play is better. There is no question in my mind that athleticism is far superior for many reasons including plain old genetics, nutrition and more players to choose from. When I was a youngster I was 6' tall and was taller than every CB I ever played against in the UK. We had very little coaching per se even at a club and university level here in the US it was let's see what you can do son. On the flip side I do feel that the odds of the likes of a Maradona are reduced as football gets more technical at lower levels and ages as I do not see street games, or park games with jumpers for goals as was ubiquitous in the day. Creativity might suffer as we try to stuff all kids into the same system. Barca has managed to keep a balance though.

I may be dead wrong, but for me to make it at the Fourth Division level takes real skill and ability now. That was not always the case, infact far from it.

For me, today's Millwall side would run circles around say 1973 Chelsea.

[StockGooner]

I don't see a golden age at all. There are good players, but very inconsistent players and that seems to follow right through from youth to their peak years. And there does seem to be a misbalance in the types of players that are being created. How many attacking midfielders can the world create and that all play as inverted wingers during their development. I can't say the craft of Bernardo Silva was any better than someone like a Hleb from the mid 2000s who was a very bang average player on the world scene. Can we name any world class defenders? VVD is being raved about rightly, but he is rising from a pretty poor pot of defenders, as inconsistency is at the maximum in defenders as opposed to any other position.

But I would say that the media doesn't help with this, and the accessibility that fans have to stats. A player can be praised in one breath and criticised in the next for not having a high enough XA in a game for example. I don't think people enjoy players anymore and in fact they are told who to like via stats. And then combine that with a territorial approach about who people like and dislike, it causes people to overhype the players they love.

For what it's worth, I think the overall quality of professional football is higher, but the absolute quality is lacking compared to previous generations.

[elkanofan]

I don't see a golden age at all. There are good players, but very inconsistent players and that seems to follow right through from youth to their peak years. And there does seem to be a misbalance in the types of players that are being created. How many attacking midfielders can the world create and that all play as inverted wingers during their development. I can't say the craft of Bernardo Silva was any better than someone like a Hleb from the mid 2000s who was a very bang average player on the world scene. Can we name any world class defenders? VVD is being raved about rightly, but he is rising from a pretty poor pot of defenders, as inconsistency is at the maximum in defenders as opposed to any other position.

But I would say that the media doesn't help with this, and the accessibility that fans have to stats. A player can be praised in one breath and criticised in the next for not having a high enough XA in a game for example. I don't think people enjoy players anymore and in fact they are told who to like via stats. And then combine that with a territorial approach about who people like and dislike, it causes people to overhype the players they love.

For what it's worth, I think the overall quality of professional football is higher, but the absolute quality is lacking compared to previous generations.

What's interesting is how many people always reference 90s Premier League compared to now. As if other leagues didnt exist.

In the 90s the premier league was possibly the 4th, 5th best league in europe at best and in the early 90s was suffering in quality in comparison to the rest of europe due to being banned from Europe since 1985.

People seem to be naively ignoring Serie A, La Liga, even the Bundesliga, and the big teams at the time from Ligue 1, Eredivisie, FSR Yugoslavia League and Soviet Top League until 1990 and lastly in the early 90s Rangers were genuinely one of Europe's strongest teams.

The EPL propaganda so strong honestly people seem to forget world football didn't start in 1992.

People can learn a lot and see the clear evidence of footballs decline from watching 80s 90s and especially early 00s Serie A. Which is peak football. No EPL era comes close to 90s and early 00s Serie A.

Football is clearly better physically than before but this is a clear deception to many at the true downfall of the sport. Like i said before. Physically is more important in football than in any other era due to how the tackling have have changed. Totally sanitizing the game. Before 2007 you just needed 1 destroyer in midfield, all defenders able to tackle and your good. Tackling is so sanitized and hard now, teams have to press as a team and defend much more now, you get yellows for almost nothing these days, the game has become tag rugby like!

The art of ball manipulation defines a player. Much of this art form is not something that a coach can teach you, you must learn this yourself and must have the freedom and enviroment to develop this, this is no modern football which is building generic robot like players. Overpaid and lack the mindset to become their own men.