Mendieta was class. La Liga back then was something. The likes of Mendieta and Aimar at Valencia, Valeron, Tristan and Makaay at Depor, Rivaldo and then Ronaldinho at Barca and the Galacticos of Madrid. So much flair.
In fact thinking back now I realise how much I miss the football from those days. Notwithstanding the fact we had a top quality team and were winning things back then, football just seemed more... authentic, for lack of a better word. Feels like the spark that used to be there is missing from the game. Everything about the game, even celebrations and press conferences and interviews feels sterilised and watered down nowadays.
You saw hints of it creeping in back then when they banned lifting the shirt and those funny messages players like Thierry used to have under their shirts but it's on another level now. You have players nowadays who have been coached in PR training so much that they sound like cloned drones of each other saying the same thing over and over again making it hard to form a connection with them. Guess the globalisation and win at all costs evolution of football is the price we all have to pay for the vast amounts of money that have flowed into clubs.
