Is it because of Messi and Ronaldo's complete dominance of La Liga?Or the English Premier League's decline since the 09-10 season?Or maybe,Seria A not close to being the best league in the world,when in the 90s it wasnt even debatable that it was the best League in the world?

Most importantly,do you think most people are romanticizing the past and making it seem better than it is actually is and non of this is true,or do you think they are right and when do you think football/soccer or whattever you wanna call it will return to how good and competitive it once was?

all of the above

Football was never more competitive than it is now.

Dante wrote:Football was never more competitive than it is now.

coz three realistic contenders for the CL is as competitive as it gets

Dante wrote:Football was never more competitive than it is now.

Right now is obviously a more competitive time than when Milan had the dutch trio, Udinese had Zico, Napoli had Maradona, Fiorentina had Pasarella, Inter had Matthaus, etc. Scrub teams like Napoli had genuinely GOAT players at that time. That would never happen now. There are only 2-4 teams in each league to which elite players would be attracted to.

The problem is the 1992 reform of the CL that allowed more teams to participate in it and the higher amount of money that came from that has created a big gap between CL teams and non-CL teams. For years England had the same Top 4, for example.

Football's as good as its ever been imo. High profile matches have been delivering, the greatest players in the world give us highlights worth watching twice almost on a weekly basis.

Plus all the entertaining goals/matches we've got to see over the past couple of years.

Because there were more quality players back then?

Because today's technology allows us to scrutinize teams and players more easily than it was before.

eelir wrote:Because today's technology allows us to scrutinize teams and players more easily than it was before.

I agree. I mean just look at a forum like this. Pre-2006 there mightve been football forums around but with even nearly the traffic that there are now. And if scrutiny over football takes place anywhere its online, now more than ever.

Everything seems better when you are younger to be honest.
It's like your parents saying the music you listen to is shit and theirs was so much better.

I don't have to remind myself how good football was compared to now by watching videos of past matches. But for those who didn't find football attractive a decade ago or never even watched a single match, I recommend them to download past matches and see for themselves. If you still don't find it good, *bleep* you.

Because it is. Go back 5/6 years in time.

Compare current squads to the ones of years past especially the Italian clubs and you'll see what I mean.

This is the weakest ever era in football. The sport has become a complete joke.

Even the National Teams are a joke these days.

Nostalgia can alter peoples' opinions. There really is no way to compare an overall level of quality of every team/player in the world from one era to the next. I really don't have a strong opinion on the matter because I was too young back in those days, but some people will always think that things in the past were better, while others will always think that things will only improve in the future.

zizzle wrote:

Dante wrote:Football was never more competitive than it is now.

coz three realistic contenders for the CL is as competitive as it gets

Were Chelsea a realistic condender last season?

I think there is a real lack of quality compared to the past. It won't be long before it picks up again.

Gil wrote:Because it is. Go back 5/6 years in time.

Compare current squads to the ones of years past especially the Italian clubs and you'll see what I mean.

This is the weakest ever era in football. The sport has become a complete joke.

Even the National Teams are a joke these days.

IDK about that... Comparing squads of different eras is always a pretty subjective (and somewhat impossible) thing to do, but I'll give you that on paper some squads were stronger. But to call football a complete joke nowadays? If it's truly a complete joke, its still the biggest sport on earth bar none. Those two things don't correlate.

And International football, while it can still bring the world to a standstill (everywhere but in the U.S) during a WC, it isn't treated with the same importance as before. It seems as if most players have simply placed their club careers above their NTs a lot more often in the last few decades. But the NT games can still give an indication of where the stronger football is being played at the time.

I mean lets look at the squads you mentioned 5/6 years back in Italy. I assume you're speaking mostly about the 06 Juve and AC Milan sides which were beasts no doubt. But in the 2006 WC, those two teams supplied many of the competition's winners and even a few players from 2nd place France. Go forward 4 years and in 2010 Inter were the side to beat. But, they had barely any Italians and we saw their WC campaign. So two of the worlds best, if not the best clubs were now both in Spain and of course they make up the majority of that World cup winning side. My point is that not much has changed in those last 5/6 years you mention.

But more than anything, I think our current generation just dont appreciate anything anymore. Nowadays, INTL friendly day is a "buzzkill" to people (on these forums even) because it interferes with league play, club and NT friendlies are "meaningless" and any supercup ever is just a "glorified friendly". I think nowadays people just bitch too much. Just my 2c.

First of all, I think every era had something to offer.
The current one is probably a bit underrated for a couple of reasons, the main one being the collapse of many big clubs.

The Bundesliga is on the rise, but other than that, everything else is going down the shitter a bit. Sure, there are bright spots here and there, Real Madrid are far better than they were like 5 years ago, Juventus is looking well again, Bayern Munich are stronger than they've been since maybe the early 2000s, maybe even since the '70s, but a lot of big names don't carry their own weight anymore.

Arsenal and Liverpool aren't PL contenders by a long shot, United is doing well atm, but had no midfield for like 3 seasons, City are their biggest domestic rivals, and they still lack the chemistry to impress in Europe.

Both Milan clubs just plain suck now. Inter was such a force under Mou, but has imploded so hard it's nothing but sad, while Milan was basically looted clean by PSG.

Chelsea didn't have a midfield up until basically this season. I guess a lot of clubs weren't really rated by many people for a while. While that might not necessarily be right, it's easy to see it that way.

We'll have to wait another two seasons, but I think the competetiveness is coming back. If Real can stand up to Barca, Chelsea and one of Arsenal/Pool/Spurs do well, one of the Milan clubs copies Juves improvements, and Dortmand and Schalke keep it up, we have a couple of awesome UCL seasons ahead of us.
And that's not even counting PSG, or the dark horses like Porto, Benfica, Doneszk etc. etc. - football is still incredibly boss.

One word: nostalgia.