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Experiencing nostalgia is a moment in time that grabs your senses and takes you on a familiar and pleasurable ride back into the past. Depending on which era you spent your formative early and teenage years in you will no doubt have vivid recollections and memories of great days out watching football or you may even have a yearning for football to go back to 'the way it was'.

That is kind of the question i'm asking really:

WAS FOOTBALL BETTER AND MORE ENJOYABLE IN 'YOUR DAY' OR IS IT JUST NOSTALGIA THAT MAKES YOU THINK THIS?

For me it was better in the 90's and I will highlight a few reasons why. Just so you know, my first recollections of football were in the late 80's with the Mexico World Cup and swopping Panini stickers in the playground where I seemed to be top heavy with Chelsea players like John Bumstead, Eddie Niedzwiecki and David Speedie. The Italy 90 world cup though was the one I remember most and have fondest memories of. In terms of league football I began going to games in the early 90's.

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLIES: These games in the 80's and 90's were always fiercely competitive and not like todays where managers change a whole team at half time or nobody really gives a sh*t. National pride was at stake every time each country walked onto the pitch regardless and they were great to watch. Definitely better then than now.

WORLD CUPS AND EURO'S: A million times better years ago than now. Games now are so boring and nobody wants to lose, Spain bore everyone and on the whole they are just crap and have hardly any interesting incidents. The Confeds cup that was on recently is the way i'd like to see tournament football nowadays. That was meaningless but great entertainment all the way through. Can't remember the last time we had a tournament full of free flowing games, incidents and entertainment. Most games are forgotten the day after.

OLD GROUNDS: Ok there are health and safety issues here but I love old grounds and terracing and one by one it seems each club is moving to a lego build and losing some of their identity and taking away some of the matchday experience.

OVERPAID PLAYERS: One of the reasons it was better in the 'olden days'. Players weren't on millions and they made up a large part of their wages by win bonuses. Today players don't need bonuses as they've already got too much too soon and it has led to reduced motivation.

KITS: I'm neutral on this, I love some of the old retro kits but hated the really short shorts they used to wear in the 80's. That said , I hate the shorts today that are way lower than the knee cap. They're f*cking shorts not trousers!

FANS: I think the fans in the 80's and 90's were more involved and hard core in a nice way, lots of modern fans are way too passive and the atmosphere in my day was a million times better.

Anyway these are just some of my brief examples but I am most definitely in the camp that loved football more in my era growing up and I don't think it is just because of nostalgia either.

Ok so this thread is a bit sh*t. I can accept that.

no, i disagree andy, it is a very good thread, i just need to find some time to answer it all properly and give it the full consideration and time it deserves. bear with me, you will get some answers.

Well yesterday Steve Bruce was a footballer for Man Utd and today he looks like a f*cking hot air balloon!!

I personaly think that the 1960's were the best period. Violence has not yet really entered into the thick of it. although MAnure and one or two others had started some small prevarications by the late 60's
More fans attended at all matches. Torquay used to get 10,000 regularly. Imagine that still happening today. The forum wouldn't be able to cope.
The singing was awesome. nuff sed
Grounds were indeed more full of charecter but not safer. I didn't like some of the grounds which resembled pit slag heaps.
Tickets were cheap and players didn't rip us off with stupid wages which they can now do by blackmailing us into paying more or they wont play or they will walk off. etc
Players who were nearing the end of their careers would come down to lower leagues to play out their days at Plainmoor and most other clubs which is rare today.
The local club had more identity and locals cared more about their local club even if they liked other clubs.
The FA and other national competitions meant a lot more to clubs.
and I could see all the United matches I wanted for free from my grandads window so there!

It's really all about money. That is why Di Canio will have no effect at Sunderland because the players know they will still get £x a week regardless of if they are in the team or not and because they are worth a transfer fee then the club is held to ransom as they cannot allow a player to just do a Cabaye and sit on the bench until his contract runs down because it costs money. The player could do that as he knows he'll get another club soon enough so the Di Canio effect won't work. It is because of money.

Money also means less productivity and application from players because they know they are going to to get paid anyway, the club can't get rid of them and even if they sat on the bench they'd end up going to another club when the contract expires. It wasn't like that in the 80's and 90's and players had ambition then and desire and not just the urge to spend money and fart about in fancy cars and listening to r&b sh*te.