A question for the wrinklies

[s1ty m]

John has got it right there. This was an era of parks football when the debate was whether a skinful of champagne the night before training was less detrimental than one of beer. Tony Coleman opted for the latter and progressive management concluded he had to go, lol. The main tactic was the far post cross where rugged centreforwards constantly nodded it past isolated midgets in goal.There were no black players, no europeans,no 11 man defensive systems, and athleticism was only having one fag at half time. Was Mal ahead of his time? Were the players a delight? course they were. But it had as much in common with what we are watching today as a Ford Consul has with a 2011 Ford Mondeo.Its actually debatable whether any of those players could have come through the modern international scouting and club academy system.Perhaps two, I would say. Bell and Lee.[highlight]But remember, we got Lee from Bolton and Bell from Bury.We wouldn't even be looking there today[/highlight].

That's not entirely true. Richards was taken from Oldham and Joe Hart from Shrewsbury when in League two. We still have to fill our quota of English players because even if we get the best from around the world at an early age don't we still need a number of UK born players?

One of the top prospects at the moment is Harry Bunn whom I'm hoping can be better than his dad Frankie. If he does exceed Frankie Bunn then this lad is going to be one heck of a striker at the highest level! I'm sure there are plenty on here who can remember seeing Frankie Bunn play on Oldham Athletics plastic pitch in the first couple of Premiership seasons?

Did he once get 5 in a match v West Ham or am I dreaming it? Also, was it not a semi-final 1st leg of the League Cup?

[Kladze]

Everything is to a much higher spec nowadays from the diet to the training, the technology etc. Even if the old boys had it in them, the pitches, balls, kits, boots, preparation etc etc wouldn't have allowed them to perform to today's standard imho.

I can't speak first hand about this but surely any of our current squad would be better over the 90 minutes than the 60's lads.

Of course it's totally impossible to transplant players from that era directly to this one. I recently read that Colin Bell regularly covered more than 8 kilometres during a match - well even a relatively lazy player will run that far in today's football ...... and let's not forget that we called Bell 'Nijinsky' after a race horse renowned for its stamina.

All we can do is surmise whether or not those players, given the same diet and fitness regimes; the same equipment and training facilities, would make it in today's game.

Bell, Lee, Summerbee, and pardoe (pre injury) probably would in my opinion - though at what level is hard to judge.

[steveo_88]

John has got it right there. This was an era of parks football when the debate was whether a skinful of champagne the night before training was less detrimental than one of beer. Tony Coleman opted for the latter and progressive management concluded he had to go, lol. The main tactic was the far post cross where rugged centreforwards constantly nodded it past isolated midgets in goal.There were no black players, no europeans,no 11 man defensive systems, and athleticism was only having one fag at half time. Was Mal ahead of his time? Were the players a delight? course they were. But it had as much in common with what we are watching today as a Ford Consul has with a 2011 Ford Mondeo.Its actually debatable whether any of those players could have come through the modern international scouting and club academy system.Perhaps two, I would say. Bell and Lee.[highlight]But remember, we got Lee from Bolton and Bell from Bury.We wouldn't even be looking there today[/highlight].

That's not entirely true. Richards was taken from Oldham and Joe Hart from Shrewsbury when in League two. We still have to fill our quota of English players because even if we get the best from around the world at an early age don't we still need a number of UK born players?

One of the top prospects at the moment is Harry Bunn whom I'm hoping can be better than his dad Frankie. If he does exceed Frankie Bunn then this lad is going to be one heck of a striker at the highest level! I'm sure there are plenty on here who can remember seeing Frankie Bunn play on Oldham Athletics plastic pitch in the first couple of Premiership seasons?

Did he once get 5 in a match v West Ham or am I dreaming it? Also, was it not a semi-final 1st leg of the League Cup?

[youtube]jMHjpVyTXRk[/youtube]

6 versus Scarborough.

[craigmcfc]

Frankies' lad ain't doing too bad for our EDS either

[crossan]

They 'could' emulate that period of legends by bringing home silverware on a consistant basis............4 trophies won between 1967/8 season and 1969/70 would be a difficult to equal but not impossible with today's squad.