for a start, the threshold for bookings is lower. You can lament that "old fashioned tackling" has been removed from the game (and I'd maybe have some sympathy with that view) but the effect is that the game has become so much faster. 'Hard men' can no longer stop more skillful players by repeatedly booting them up the arse. If you don't believe me, watch what players like Souness, McMahon, Vinnie Jones, Reid (and in fairness countless others - even someone like Roy Keane more recently) used to get away with and think how those tackles would get refereed today.

Secondly, pitches are better. Improved grass technology means that we don't play games in quagmires from November to March. The game is played on beautifully manicured lawns. Again, this speeds the game up, players aren't slogging their way through mud for 90 minutes. Faster surfaces, faster game.

Thirdly, nutrition, diet and sports science (e.g. recovery) have improved almost exponentially in the last 20 years. Players no longer finish up their game and then neck a few pints in the Players Lounge on a Saturday evening. Their weight:muscle ratio, physical conditioning and fitness is dramatically better than it ever has been. They're running 14 or 15km each game - not quite, but nearly a third further than players did 20 years ago.

And fourthly, tactically English top-flight football is now just better, smarter and more intelligent. Football has become a globalised game, ideas about how you play football from Spanish, Italian or other international leagues have arrived with the very best of the managers who came from those countries.

Does that mean that Rideout, Gough et al couldn't play in this league now if they had their time again? Not necessarily. But what is indisputable is that the best modern-day football is played by players in the 20 - 25 year old age range. The cores of the best teams in our league and across Europe are comprised of players mostly under 27 (Kane at Bayern is probably a notable exception - but an exception who has looked after himself incredibly diligently).

There's no reason a successful team can't integrate one - at a stretch two, older (outfield) players and compete towards the top of the League. But if the nucleus of your team isn't in that 20 - 25 year age range, you're really very unlikely to compete at the point in the season when it really matters.