Summer Transfer Window

[joey_big_nose]

Hmm, it's a tricky question to ask whether the team of the early 2000s would do as well today. You have to ask whether fitness issues are relevent as if they were to theoretically “play” a team from today then they would have access to the same fitness techniques. Also if you look at players like Duff, Giggs, Danny Murphy etc who have all be around for a the whole period have they really been outstripped by younger players with better technique? Largely I would say in the premiership the quality of technique from the players has not improved vastly since the early 2000s. The top six have got better but beneath that it is, for my money, very similar to the early 2000s.

There was a big leap forward when the foreign players started coming in from 1992-2000 but I don’t think we have seen much more forward movement from there.#

The big change for me is at the elite level where teams like Spain and Barcelona have moved the highest standard up a gear. I would say Barca and Spain are the best football teams I have ever seen in my life.

[AJW]

i think the lad on the left will get a few women into ewood

and a few Huncoat lads no doubt

[AJW]

Kean to Mrs Desai - "did you watch the european championships Madam?"

Mrs D - "yes i did"

Kean - " Great ...... well we've signed Gomes and we're hopeful of Silva too"

Mrs D - " Mario and David?......... Steve .....Steve... hello are you there??????"

[Clitherover]

and the award for gayest t-shirt of the year goes to...

One thing that did catch my eye was this in the comments section below:-

How we could have done with a striker like Nuno Gomes at the Euros. At 36 he is still far better than both Postiga and Almeida...

- Mateus, Algarve, 04/7/2012 09:20

[HATRIX]

You didn't need me for that. I can see you evolving and producing even sillier stuff ten years from now

If you do it as a science project I guess you'd be able to push the limits even further. No clean athlete will run 100m in less than 9 seconds for a few million years.

I didnt exaggerate my point it was clearly within the bounderies of what i was trying to put accross, youre the one who twisted it for your own personal sad enjoyment

[Lathund]

The average age of the team from 2000 would be close to 40 by now I'd think. Of course they'd get battered today.

Is Nunes t-shirt saying "(Peter) Crouch is over rated. Use your eyes!"?

[Salgado Is A Hero]

The average age of the team from 2000 would be close to 40 by now I'd think. Of course they'd get battered today.

Is Nunes t-shirt saying "(Peter) Crouch is over rated. Use your eyes!"?

Haha that's what I thought as well. Nunes must be tall though because I know Gomes is, so that is a positive. Don't want another Villanueva situation is which you can tell they are talented but not physical enough to succeed in this country.

[Earlydoors]

All sports have improved ! thats why sprinters and jumpers and the like continue to break records ,its not hard to work out really is it? with improved coaching method and sport science ,younger players learning from watching the stars of the past will continue to improve there own game ,it will be the same agin in another 10 years time ,it aint abad thing.

I don't think football has improved. I think individual levels of skill have improved because players are (overly) protected now. They are encouraged to take on their man in the knowledge that if they can't beat him then they can dive for a free-kick. This has come at the expense of teamwork (Arsenal excepted) and to the detriment of intelligent, determined or brave players.

[neophox]

Nunes is very talented and I think that Gomes is also being brought to help the spanish and portuguise youngsters at the club, this can work out well. Maybe Gomes is a future manager, who knows? along with Danny Murphy

[den]

The big change for me is at the elite level where teams like Spain and Barcelona have moved the highest standard up a gear. I would say Barca and Spain are the best football teams I have ever seen in my life.

I would offer a different view.

Go back to the days of the standard boggy pitch and poor surfaces. Barcelona and Spain would be rendered fairly useless. The passing game just wouldn't come off. The old fashioned Fred Pickering type centre forward would run right through them. The teams of yesteryear might well have "got stuck into them", put the ball over the top into a muddy penalty box and mullered them. Who's to say which is the "right way" to play football? The players of yesteryear had skills and talents of their own, just different skills and different talents. Who's to say that the non-physical game of today, played on snooker table surfaces is better?

[AJW]

One we should be looking at??

http://www1.skysport.../11095/7865944/

And just for fun .... we just have to sign this guy :brfc:

http://www.skysports.com/football/player/0,,11846_301502,00.html

[pick32]

Watched Barcelona on a muddy pitch in the cup this year and they looked shocking, couldn't help but think us or stoke would of batterd them. Every pass fell 10yards too short.

[Sparky Marky]

Watched Barcelona on a muddy pitch in the cup this year and they looked shocking, couldn't help but think us or stoke would of batterd them. Every pass fell 10yards too short.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

One we should be looking at??

http://www1.skysport.../11095/7865944/

Good player with lots of potential.....will go to a better team than us for sure.....or a team in a better situation than us I should say.

[Baz]

All sports have improved ! thats why sprinters and jumpers and the like continue to break records ,its not hard to work out really is it? with improved coaching method and sport science ,younger players learning from watching the stars of the past will continue to improve there own game ,it will be the same agin in another 10 years time ,it aint abad thing.

Good players 12 years ago would still be good players today. Most of that team mentioned went on to, or already had many premier league appearances.

In fact Friedel and Duff are still going in the premier league now, well past their prime but still in the premier league.

I personally think the league is pretty similar to 2000 in that there's gonna be 2 or 3 outstanding teams, some mediocre and a few bad teams. It's harder to get out of this league than to stay in the premier league.

[bluebruce]

Watched Barcelona on a muddy pitch in the cup this year and they looked shocking, couldn't help but think us or stoke would of batterd them. Every pass fell 10yards too short.

Not us. The old us.

One we should be looking at??

http://www1.skysport.../11095/7865944/

And just for fun .... we just have to sign this guy :brfc:

http://www.skysports..._301502,00.html

Weiss clearly states in that article that he is only interested in offers from the top leagues. So we've no chance.

[joey_big_nose]

I would offer a different view.

Go back to the days of the standard boggy pitch and poor surfaces. Barcelona and Spain would be rendered fairly useless. The passing game just wouldn't come off. The old fashioned Fred Pickering type centre forward would run right through them. The teams of yesteryear might well have "got stuck into them", put the ball over the top into a muddy penalty box and mullered them. Who's to say which is the "right way" to play football? The players of yesteryear had skills and talents of their own, just different skills and different talents. Who's to say that the non-physical game of today, played on snooker table surfaces is better?

True. But when I rate how 'good' a team is it comes down to their technical ability. It's a personal choice, I agree, no definitive answer - but then there is a general tide of public aesthetic opinion. Most would much rather have teams that play like Arsene Wenger's Arsenal winning the league than Graham Taylor's Wolves. This general predilection is something the football authorities have recognized with the emphasis on quality pitches and protecting skillful players from physical intimidation.

[Oklahoma]

Weiss? Not in your reach now. And his salaries must be too big for us, even when we were in the Premier.

[den]

True. But when I rate how 'good' a team is it comes down to their technical ability. It's a personal choice, I agree, no definitive answer - but then there is a general tide of public aesthetic opinion. Most would much rather have teams that play like Arsene Wenger's Arsenal winning the league than Graham Taylor's Wolves. This general predilection is something the football authorities have recognized with the emphasis on quality pitches and protecting skillful players from physical intimidation.

Technical ability always rose to the top. Even on the pitches of the 60's the great technical players rose to the top. Best, Greaves, Douglas, Moore etc could all play. The way the game has gone today, has played into the hands of the diver and the cheat. It wasn't always physical intimidation, it was good old fashioned hard, solid tackling. Ref's allowed much more tackling then - that's true, and a lot of players got away with murder, but all in all it was a more fullsome game. Players had skill, strength, coupled with an ability to play on any surface put in front of them. Believe me, this Barcelona side wouldn't have been able to outpass the opposition so easily. Teams wouldn't have allowed them to do it. Nowadays, if anyone goes close they fall over.

So are they the best team ever, when in all likelihood they wouldn't have dominated the way they do now? Wrong topic, but interesting debate anyway.

[Jamesw1982]

Is it true about Anthony Gerrard from cardiff?

[roverandout]

no

[JAL]

With the exception of Best and only two more players to come in what a crap summer window this has been.

[Ricky]

Disagree completely. Murphy is a very good signing. I'm happy with the players bought in although a lot will depend on who we lose.

[Josh]

With the exception of Best and only two more players to come in what a crap summer window this has been.

What were you expecting? Lionel Messi?

[JAL]

Disagree completely. Murphy is a very good signing. I'm happy with the players bought in although a lot will depend on who we lose.

Disagree ! are you for real ! Murphy looks like a man who is ready to die rather than a man who is going box to box for ninety minutes pushing Rovers onto promotion.