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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 11:52:34 GMT
Billy Bodin excites us all when he scores from twenty or thirty yards but I would suggest watching Peter Hooper driving the ball from twenty five yards into the top corner at Ashton Gate against the City is something I will never forget, and that on a heavy pitch with an old leather ball. Fitness yes quite obviously better, but football ability and the quality of the football certainly no better and in our case definately not better than sixty years ago. Imagine today's players facing the tackling back then, they roll around and scream now when they're hardly touched.
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Post by althepirate on Aug 28, 2017 12:18:41 GMT
One difference for me regarding the quality in the lower leagues is that anyone with real quality is grabbed by the Prem even as young as 9. This never used to happen and even at our level almost every team had a star player as we had Geoff. These players would put an extra few thousand on the gate. Also players used to finish their playing careers in the lower leagueso now they don't have to because they are very rich. Considering all of this I think the standard at our level is pretty good and as managers realise there aren't any stars hard working teams are the answer as DC's philosophy shows. One area I feel is way below quality from the past is the taking of chances as players that can are soon ripped away from the lower league clubs.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 12:56:43 GMT
Possibly but a squads strength is to be assessed after a season perhaps? 7 And finishing 6th twice in what is now the championship should show how strong the squad was
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 12:58:52 GMT
Squad isn't the best but it's being managed the best.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 12:59:34 GMT
DC Is building a good squad but tbh it's impossible to compare different times and different squads. Conditions of the big leather balls, the ability to use 3 subs now compared to none in the 50s and 60s and only 1 in the 70s makes comparisons impossible so you have to look at what each squad achieved. Padstow is absolutely correct in saying Bert Tanns squad of the 50s would beat our current squad, I think the one of the mid 60s would as well. The 50s squad nearly got to the first division so it's a valid opinion to hold. I don't think this current one is as good a squad as the 73/74 one of Don Megson. That was a much more settled team which almost picked itself for the whole season. Same as the 89/90 team of Gerry F which was another settled team where the manager knew his best team. Both those squads had forwards who scored and were a constant threat. TBH we are lacking that at the moment. To become the best squad ever this team will need to win promotion. That's not a criticism because I think DC has done well to assemble what he has and I'm pleased with the business he's done but let's be honest it's not the best we've had and it's not even in the top three or four! UTG! This is obviously not the best Rovers team ever, although I for one have enjoyed watching every game I've seen them play. The OP wasn't claiming that it is though. What we do have with this squad, which I can never remember before, is the strength on the bench. DC could put out a completely different 11 on Saturday, and most of us would feel that the performance would be a strong one. We've had teams before when we've worried that one substitution would make us weaker. When had this ever been the case before? Someone was talking about the Geoff Bradford team being better than this one, but when he got injured, the results slid away, and we failed to get promoted, so where was the strength in the squad there? Bit like when Taylor left in January and we failed to make the play offs so as you said where was the strength in the squad then
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Post by Midsomer Murderer on Aug 28, 2017 12:59:49 GMT
The players today are faster, stronger and fitter and all this talk of Bert Tann and lace up football's is sweet but nostalgic nonsense. The football we play is much better than we did 10 years ago let alone 60 years ago. Rvtime The football played was relative to the era in which it was played. That team of the mid 50's was a very 'special' team which attracted crowds invariably of over 20k for every home match. Even Geoff Bradford's return from a broken leg attracted a reserve team attendance of over 8k - a match in which he scored a hat-trick - against Stoke City I believe. A player IMO who will never be surpassed by any other Bristol Rovers player - he even turned down a transfer to Liverpool - and ended up being a petrol tanker driver after his retirement. I was privileged to watch him play for 5/6 seasons. "sweet but nostalgic nonsense" - I don't think so - as I mentioned a privilege to have watched Geoff Bradford and that particular team. A team a few of us on here can still name to a man even today - 60 years on - a team of real legends. I'm 51 so.not a young man and if you think the football you watched then is anywhere near the physical level and that the players are not faster and stronger now you need to go to specsavers
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 13:00:28 GMT
If dc had ollies squad I.e Roberts, Hayles, cureton and Ellington we would 100% be a championship team with ambitions of top flight football!
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Post by Midsomer Murderer on Aug 28, 2017 13:01:20 GMT
The players today are faster, stronger and fitter and all this talk of Bert Tann and lace up football's is sweet but nostalgic nonsense. The football we play is much better than we did 10 years ago let alone 60 years ago. Agree with this. The players in the 50s would struggle to get up and down the pitch like todays players. Half of them smoked at HT and were drinkers. How do I know? My Grandfather played for Bert Tann. exactly this ~ I'm not having a pop at our fantastic history but times change.
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Post by rovers5charlton5 on Aug 28, 2017 15:09:44 GMT
This is obviously not the best Rovers team ever, although I for one have enjoyed watching every game I've seen them play. The OP wasn't claiming that it is though. What we do have with this squad, which I can never remember before, is the strength on the bench. DC could put out a completely different 11 on Saturday, and most of us would feel that the performance would be a strong one. We've had teams before when we've worried that one substitution would make us weaker. When had this ever been the case before? Someone was talking about the Geoff Bradford team being better than this one, but when he got injured, the results slid away, and we failed to get promoted, so where was the strength in the squad there? Bit like when Taylor left in January and we failed to make the play offs so as you said where was the strength in the squad then That was last year's squad though, wasn't it? Aren't we talking about this year's?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 16:02:08 GMT
Bit like when Taylor left in January and we failed to make the play offs so as you said where was the strength in the squad then That was last year's squad though, wasn't it? Aren't we talking about this year's? No yanking about when Bradford broke his leg and we missed out on promotion
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2017 22:54:25 GMT
Agree with this. The players in the 50s would struggle to get up and down the pitch like todays players. Half of them smoked at HT and were drinkers. How do I know? My Grandfather played for Bert Tann. exactly this ~ I'm not having a pop at our fantastic history but times change. To try and compare i think you have to allow the 1950"s team to have all the modern fitness aids and imagine they were born in this era. The smoking and drinking thing is of that time and later but if those players were around now they wouldnt be doing it,its the same with the ball and boots etc you can only really compare by allowing them what modern footballers have. Geoff bradford was among the best 10 strikers in the country back then, where would our best striker be in a list of the best strikers in the league now?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 6:19:03 GMT
exactly this ~ I'm not having a pop at our fantastic history but times change. To try and compare i think you have to allow the 1950"s team to have all the modern fitness aids and imagine they were born in this era. The smoking and drinking thing is of that time and later but if those players were around now they wouldnt be doing it,its the same with the ball and boots etc you can only really compare by allowing them what modern footballers have. Geoff bradford was among the best 10 strikers in the country back then, where would our best striker be in a list of the best strikers in the league now? Ok so if things need to be levelled-ball, facilities etc. Then we'd need to introduce 60% foreigners into the 1950s division 1 aswell. That should push our side down a bit.
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Post by spiess1 on Aug 29, 2017 7:18:12 GMT
EXACTLY, 79! Rovers Players now are in the top 800 British players, so in effect would be Championship/Div 2 players of old
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 10:35:07 GMT
To try and compare i think you have to allow the 1950"s team to have all the modern fitness aids and imagine they were born in this era. The smoking and drinking thing is of that time and later but if those players were around now they wouldnt be doing it,its the same with the ball and boots etc you can only really compare by allowing them what modern footballers have. Geoff bradford was among the best 10 strikers in the country back then, where would our best striker be in a list of the best strikers in the league now? Ok so if things need to be levelled-ball, facilities etc. Then we'd need to introduce 60% foreigners into the 1950s division 1 aswell. That should push our side down a bit. Truth is you can only play in whatever era your born in,younger people tend to dismiss old era players and older people vice-versa. Ref foreign players,i dont think we produce anything like the number of players in the uk that we used to. Slum areas like parts of glasgow and most big industrial cities were football hotbeds years ago when rough kids played for hours in the streets. My own opinion is that if someone was an outstanding player in any particular era they would be now.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 10:40:55 GMT
The football played was relative to the era in which it was played. That team of the mid 50's was a very 'special' team which attracted crowds invariably of over 20k for every home match. Even Geoff Bradford's return from a broken leg attracted a reserve team attendance of over 8k - a match in which he scored a hat-trick - against Stoke City I believe. A player IMO who will never be surpassed by any other Bristol Rovers player - he even turned down a transfer to Liverpool - and ended up being a petrol tanker driver after his retirement. I was privileged to watch him play for 5/6 seasons. "sweet but nostalgic nonsense" - I don't think so - as I mentioned a privilege to have watched Geoff Bradford and that particular team. A team a few of us on here can still name to a man even today - 60 years on - a team of real legends. I'm 51 so.not a young man and if you think the football you watched then is anywhere near the physical level and that the players are not faster and stronger now you need to go to specsavers Where have I said that - read the first sentence again - think you're the one that needs to visit specsavers.
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Post by althepirate on Aug 29, 2017 11:00:19 GMT
I think DC has done a great job with obtaining a balanced squad. It used to be that a terrible performance would be the only reason to make big changes, now it's done after excellent performances and results. This being the case DC's management must be spot on to keep everyone happy in this situation.
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Post by stevek192 on Aug 29, 2017 11:03:49 GMT
The truth is that whilst players of a bygone age would have all the fitness things available to them they would also have all the vices of today that they didn't have in their day ie a lot more things to keep them busy than kicking a ball about. They would also have the huge wages that in my opinion takes away a lot of the "love of the game". You can only rate players in the era in which they played because so much has changed. Even the rules have changed and IMO none for the better. Even the horrific offside law of old looks anything but horrific in todays game..the authorities have actually complicated it. The tackling rules to "clean up" the game have again made the game worse to the stage now where defending will soon become a forgotten art as defenders have to shake a players hand and let them past. The game being stopped for a serious head injury which was sensible has now reached the stage of stopping the game for anything. A goalkick that used to have to be taken from the side the ball went out now can be taken from either side to so say speed the game up...what a joke the keepers now take ages by changing sides. The game has been ruined by MONEY and so would any of the bygone players. Would Bobby Moore have been able to gain his place from the newly signed Beckenbaur, or Geoff Hurst ever got a game over the star signing Pele? We have to just remember the old times with affection and move on the roller coaster which is our beloved game. The thing about comparisons is they have to be made on a level playing field and that can never be the case.
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Post by Marshy on Aug 29, 2017 12:33:24 GMT
The truth is that whilst players of a bygone age would have all the fitness things available to them they would also have all the vices of today that they didn't have in their day ie a lot more things to keep them busy than kicking a ball about. They would also have the huge wages that in my opinion takes away a lot of the "love of the game". You can only rate players in the era in which they played because so much has changed. Even the rules have changed and IMO none for the better. Even the horrific offside law of old looks anything but horrific in todays game..the authorities have actually complicated it. The tackling rules to "clean up" the game have again made the game worse to the stage now where defending will soon become a forgotten art as defenders have to shake a players hand and let them past. The game being stopped for a serious head injury which was sensible has now reached the stage of stopping the game for anything. A goalkick that used to have to be taken from the side the ball went out now can be taken from either side to so say speed the game up...what a joke the keepers now take ages by changing sides. The game has been ruined by MONEY and so would any of the bygone players. Would Bobby Moore have been able to gain his place from the newly signed Beckenbaur, or Geoff Hurst ever got a game over the star signing Pele? We have to just remember the old times with affection and move on the roller coaster which is our beloved game. The thing about comparisons is they have to be made on a level playing field and that can never be the case. Yeah okay, but apart from that what's changed?
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Post by Midsomer Murderer on Aug 29, 2017 14:08:51 GMT
exactly this ~ I'm not having a pop at our fantastic history but times change. To try and compare i think you have to allow the 1950"s team to have all the modern fitness aids and imagine they were born in this era. The smoking and drinking thing is of that time and later but if those players were around now they wouldnt be doing it,its the same with the ball and boots etc you can only really compare by allowing them what modern footballers have. Geoff bradford was among the best 10 strikers in the country back then, where would our best striker be in a list of the best strikers in the league now? Players are fitter, stronger and faster now irrespective of equipment.
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Post by pirate on Aug 29, 2017 14:35:36 GMT
To try and compare i think you have to allow the 1950"s team to have all the modern fitness aids and imagine they were born in this era. The smoking and drinking thing is of that time and later but if those players were around now they wouldnt be doing it,its the same with the ball and boots etc you can only really compare by allowing them what modern footballers have. Geoff bradford was among the best 10 strikers in the country back then, where would our best striker be in a list of the best strikers in the league now? Players are fitter, stronger and faster now irrespective of equipment. It's unbelievable how good Puskas was back in the day, despite being a "little fat chap." "Look at that little fat chap. We'll murder this lot" said an England player. 90 minutes later Hungary had slaughtered England 6-3. www.whoateallthepies.tv/lists/201811/top-xi-overweight-footballers.html
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