how much has football changed

[Guest geachy1]

what are opinoins on how much football has changed over the last 40 - 50 years, i had a debate at work with my work mates they think footballers are better back in 50's and 60's but i think footballer 2day are better, would the 1966 team beat a full strenghth 2007 england team.

[Guest]

You can never compare the different era's. You have to accept what it was at the time. If you are talking about top class football then how can you compare the 1966 world cup winning team with todays internationals. You can't. You only have to look at the shocking pitches they used to play on then compared to the bowling green surfaces now. Likewise fitness. If you were able to play the England team of then against todays team then in fitness alone the game would be over as a contest inside the first 20 minutes. Lets just compare teams at the time.

[Xembla]

It is problematic to compare different eras. But just today I was watching the highlights of Liverpool's '78 Euro Cup victory over Brugge and I was struck by how thin all their legs looked and how slight generally. I think muscle training means that modern players would push older eras off the pitch -- but maybe they had more guile!

Off the field have been the biggest changes: the money, the fans, the sponsorships -- the foreign players, etc.

[Guest geachy1]

rules have changed over the years,

do you think the amount of foriegn players have improved the english game but then again the amount of foriegn players in the premiership it is a league of foriegners.

does any one on this forum remember a striker called roger burleigh played for penryn,plyed in late 60's 70's i think.

[Mike Odgers]

Was he known as 'Bud' Burleigh and was a previous club Ponsanooth?

[Guest geachy1]

yeh he sometimes is refered as bud

[Coopsie]

would the 1966 team beat a full strenghth 2007 england team.

YES. Too much pride, passion, togetherness and the fact that they represented their country because it was an honour, not because it put more money in the bank. The 66 team would have battered today's nancy boys off the park.

[chairman]

I agree with Coopsie. Their guts and real passion would overcome Today's Prima Donnas in Ballet Shoes. Of course they also had a superb Manager in Alf.

[cornishteddyboy]

I thought players don't get paid when they represent England.

[Coopsie]

They get a set fee for each friendly and then get more for each proper game which is upped or lowered depending upon quality of opposition. Then there's the hundreds of thousands of pounds they are always promised if they win a crunch quarter final etc etc. Then on top of that they get more from their respective sponsors because their brand is being displayed on a bigger stage (although a players sponsorship is down to them and nothing to do with the FA, so I guess thats ok).

It's only around 6 months ago a certain Stuart Pearce was saying that players should be stopped from being paid for representing their country because how could they possibly need any other incentive other than to wear that shirt with the three lions on their chest.

We are a VERY proud nation, it's just a pity that the prima-donnas that represent it are not of the same mould as those in the past such as Ince, Butcher, Charlton(s) etc etc.

Just look at the captain of our country, Couldn't play in the most vital game since we got knocked out of the world cup BUT 3 days later he plays 90 minutes for his club and then 2 days after that, he plays another 90 .

Could you really see Greavsie, Keegan et al not pulling on an England shirt unless they had a leg hanging off?.

[cornishteddyboy]

Read the links below

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/i...als/6736783.stm

http://itn.co.uk/news/60d8c10538e7a559f1313a6b81876a4d.html

[Guest Skinner1]

:drink: ROGER BURLEIGH ALSO KNOWN AS BUD, PLAYED FOR GLASNEY RANGERS IN 1960 THEN PENRYN A F C WAS FORMED. BUD WAS A STRONG CENTRE FORWARD WHO SCORED OVER 200 GOALS FOR PENRYN IN THE FAL AND HELSTON LEAGUE . HAD SPELLS WITH HELSTON IN SOUTH WESTERN LEAGUE AND DOCKS IN COMBINATION LEAGUE :drink:

[Guest cornish pasty]

tonight on bbc4 11.50 programme comparing football in 1957 to 2007

[Guest crosser]

I thought players don't get paid when they represent England.

they used to get paid a nominal fee, but one of the first things the saint don revie did when he was england manager was to get the money raised and that was back in the 70's

[r_and_l]

I am suprised the physical side of the game has not been mentioned if you played the old style rules where tackles where sometime quite vicious and from behind todays players wouldnt know what had hit them the same as if it was todays refs where any physical contact usually results in afoul the players of yesteryear would be buggered so i dont think you can compare eras because rules have changed fitness has changed some for the better and some for the worst but mostly i think todays players a far more skilled then the older generation you could ask the same question in 20 years time and the game we play today will be nothing like the game they play in the future.

[falmouth]

i think you will find that bud now runs the line for falmouth ath on a sat

[oldasitgets]

I palyed my first adult game 1n 1966 and my latest one .....this morning!!

Most at grass roots level so I can only comment on that.

Players aren't fitter. They're stronger.

Skills are in a completely different world. Players are coached in skills at an early age (Hate to say this..) partially thanks to MacDonalds!

The kit is different. balls are lighter and don't soak up water. They make you wear shin pads. (In my early days only pouffs wore shin pads.) In general the pitches are better.

When I came to Cornwall in the late 70s, playing Mining 1, the skills were better than I'd experienced but the team play was pathetic. A bit of coaching made a very ordinary side quite useful.

Boots are totally different. When I started they were heavy duty (actually played in "real" boots with shiny toecaps and proper ankle support, lagged with dubbin.) Now, if you kick someone. it hurts you as much as it hurts them.

Balls! (Just thought I'd say that) Real leather. Heavy with dubbin before you start, unbelievable when wet. Try a chest trap with them and you're looking at a cracked rib minimum. Head it - mild concussion or head split open with the leather laces!

Rules have changed to protect the players. If you tried the fancy stuff, then someone would just go straight through you. ball, leg, anything. The ref would say "Play on! It's a man's game." How George Best survived, I haven't a clue. He really was a genius.

Goalkeepers could run out with the ball BUT they had to bounce it every 3 steps. And you could jump at him, provide you hit his shoulder with yours!

[Tommy Matthews]

Since the start of the Premier League, sports scientists have found that:

Tempo of the game has increased.

Players covered almost 2km further per game.

Ball travels further and faster.

Fewer pauses for recovery.

Greater call on fitness.

More reliance on pacing individual effort.

Optimising training and nutritional preparation for competitive play.

And that doesn't take into account the various law changes etc we've seen during that time.

A couple of years ago I heard a radio interview with Sir Bobby Charlton. He was asked if he wished he'd been a player now and not back in his heyday, his reply was basically "No but I wish I had all the knowledge about health, nutrition, fitness and sports science that the players have today to know how much better I might have been.

[chairman]

The 1966 Cup winning Squad are now in their 60s,so I think the current Squad would hold them to a Draw.

[Deano11]

Only a matter of time before someone came up with that chairman :D

[MOUNTAINEER]

I was at the 1966 Final, success for team spirit and Ramsey know how.

Players now suffer Athletics injuries and are out injured more often, although it is still 22 players and a ball, the game has changed almost out of recognition.

Under todays rules that 1966 side would be sat in the dressing room, ALL sent off.

Under 1966 rules todays players would also be off but off laid out in the dressing room injured.

In the old days the pitch was rolled before the game, now the players do it when tackled.