I enjoyed football back in the 90s and 00s more as well but I think much of that is glorification of the past. There were a couple things better about football back then like the lesser concentration of funds and talent at the top but also a lot that was worse like more clubs on the brink of financial ruin and arguably more corruption.

@Burns come on, Di Canio wasn't an "eccentric".

He was an eccentric, just like Hermann Göring. Probably keeps pet tigers too nowadays.

I'm not too rosy-eyed about the past, I think the biggest difference (and we were discussing this the other day) is that the drive for elite athleticism across the board from a fairly early age is gradually squeezing out some of the more physically unusual, or gifted but less athletic players.

Pretty sure Juninho's already been mentioned in this thread but that guy was a genius with the physique of a fourteen year old.

Injuries ruined Vicente unfortunately.

Big Willie wrote:

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.

Even if it's overly defensive, I think I prefer international tournament football now for exactly this reason. It has the authenticity that club football and its yearly 'battle of the super brands' (meaning the CL) lacks. You don't know what to expect from most teams, it's a little less sanitised, the players clearly care more, there are no billionaires influencing the game, economics and 'official noodle sponsors' fail to affect results on the pitch...

[size=xx-small]Disclaimer: This is potentially 100% a result of Arsenal's latest groundhog-day season. [/size]

Gazza M wrote:

Pretty much anyone from that deportivo team between 2000-2003. Makaay, tristan, donato, mauro silva, naybet, valeron. Quality players in those years

Vicente, the valencia winger - what happened to him? Every man and his dog wanted him in the mid naughtied

He was playing for Brighton a few years back. Bit of a surprise at the time.