Is it 'time, women and gongs'?

DOMINIC DI PAOLA takes issue with two other points made by Eamonn Searle:

One thing I completely refute about some of the comments from these senior figures in our game is that players nowadays give up and roll over. I can honestly say I have never played in a team that's done that.

Clifton last year had an average age of 24 and we have won games with nine players against good teams with 11, through fight and determination. All the lads I play with give everything every week, they are honest and hard players with whom it is a privilege to be on the same pitch.

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I feel it is the responsibility of the older players and long-serving ones to remind younger lads how much it is an honour to play at a level where everything is done for you. They just turn up and play the game, when there are other lads, in the parks, putting up nets, filling water bottles and all the rest. I'm not sure how often this issue is raised.

I also think if a manager is good he will be able to motivate a team to such an extent that no one would "roll over" if things were not going well. If not, then he should have a lesser position.

An issue I do have nowadays is young players are given too much too early, in terms of chances at county level. Granted, I am rubbish, but it took me three years to play regularly at county league level. Youngsters now are given a chance so early they don't know what it is to fight for a place and give everything when that opportunity comes along.

Finally, Mr Searle's comments that he is finding it easier now in Division 1 is perhaps a little disrespectful to his opponents and maybe doing a little disservice to how good a predator he actually is. And how he now uses his considerable experience to make the correct runs at the correct times and not waste his energy haring around, as players do when they have youthful enthusiasm.

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Does Teddy Sheringham, also at 40, find the opposition easier than when he was younger? Or does he just use his head even more, now, than when he was, say 25? He just looks a better player all the time.

Players undoubtedly play the game differently now and, in my opinion, the reason Eamonn is doing so well is because he is "old school" and plays with blood and guts that defenders are not used to these days. But in another five years, that aspect of football will be totally eradicated and it will be more about touch and skill '” which in my opinion is how football should be (I'll have to retire as my touch and skill is very limited). Players nowadays are more conditioned for this style.

It is an endless subject and I know in 20 years I will be saying the same as these respected players and will be mentioning the great local players from my era '” Mike McCaffrey, Matt and Mike Huckett, Biff (Joe] and Neil Shelley, Simon Clayton, Chris Hibberd, Dan McLaughlin, Sean Duffy and more.

But every generation is different. Who would have thought how a game, that 50 to 60 years ago had only two out-and-out defenders and five attackers, is now played mostly in a formation of 4-4-2? That is evolution for you.

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Coming later: are the Americans getting right what we might be getting wrong in children's football?