HIF wrote:Sedale Threatt wrote:Rust_Cohle wrote:Another moronic take. Today’s athletes are better than they’ve EVER been in history.
Messi would comfortably dominate 60’s or 70’s football. I mean imagine actually thinking him or Ronaldo wouldn’t be able to cut it against FAR less talented players from 50 years ago
I was in a military family stationed in England in the late 80s, which is where I caught the soccer buzz. It was awesome, I loved it, but half the players in the old First Division were alcoholics who got sht faced throughout the season. High-level players like Paul Merson and Paul Gascgoine, awesome as they were, were borderline fat. The notion that a physical fitness freak like Ronaldo, or somebody who can dribble out of trouble in a phone booth like Messi, would struggle against that level of competition to the point of anonymity because the grass was longer and the game was more physical is so ludicrous it barely merits a response.
You're confusing talent with conditions.
Messi would have been kicked off the park - legally that's without even mentioning the muddy pitches where his style of game would have ben completely ineffective.
Still today's generation believe that their players are the greatest ever, Messi and Ronaldo are incredible players and the greatest of their generation but comparing with the past is a stupid thing to do. Even in american sports like Football comparing a QB now with one from half a century ago is ridiculous as the game is so much different (softer and easier just like in soccer). I'm not going to try to open your minds in this thread any further. Not sure why it isn't closed anyway. Keep your closed minds guys.
Ah, so arguably the two most skilled and talented players in the entire history of the game are gonna be "kicked off the park," but (going back to the English game as an example) vastly inferior players like Gazza, Merson, Ian Rush, Gary Lineker, Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley, David Platt, John Barnes, Kenny Dalglish, Glenn Hoddle, Bryan Robson -- the list is endless -- somehow managed to find a way to thrive under these conditions.
And let's not forget exactly what you said. Not only wouldn't they be as good, these conditions were somehow so oppressive that
neither of them would have even been noticed. While a bunch of pub crawlers with 1/2 the talent who didn't even know what physical fitness was would/were. Utterly ludicrous.
And that's not to denigrate those players; I saw most of them in action and they were all awesome in their own ways. (Lineker remains one of my favorite players ever.) But come on, you're being ridiculous. Putting players who have achieved and done the things that Messi & Ronaldo have on a pedestal isn't a generational thing. (Especially here; I'm pushing 50 so I've seen tons of players/generations come and go already).
It's an I-have-a-functioning-brain-and-I-understand-what-I'm-seeing thing.