Winning a treble in the past century was much harder than now

[matbezlima]

In the 20st century, it was very, very rare that a team would win the UCL and also the national league in the same season. I guess that when the clubs were playing in the UCL, they really gave it all to UCL and ignored the national league most of the times. Squads' size and physical preparation probably weren't enough to allow clubs to really fight hard for both, much less a treble. Only Celtic in 67, Ajax in 72, PSV in 88 and United in 99 managed to win trebles in the 20st century. We already have more as many trebles in 20 years in this century (Barcelona 2009, Inter 2010, Bayern 2013 and Barcelona 2015) than in all 45 UCLs in the previous century!

 

[matbezlima]

A weird case was Bayern in the 70s. They won the Bundesliga in 72, 73 and 74. UCL in 74, 75 and 76. In 76 they finished third place in Bundesliga and in 75 they finished in tenth place and even fought against relegation! They also were victim of some embarrassing big defeats, like the 4-1 defeat against Borussia Monchengladbach, the team that dominated Bundesliga while Bayern dominated Europe.

 

[Halds]

The foreigner limits are gone, so no limitations at squad building besides money. And with the introduction of CL all the top teams play regularly for that trophy every year, as opposed to only one from each country.

And at the same time football has become a multibillion business with the rich clubs solid planted on the top of the foodchain, buying the talent they want from the rest 99%, leaving a much bigger gap in the quality these days from the top teams to the rest.

I haven't checked up on it, but I'm pretty sure the trophies are spread on fewer clubs today.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

I have to admit that I didn't think I'd see the 4 trebles in 7 seasons from 2009-2015. Bayern in 2010 and Juve in 2015 and 2017 were one match away from the treble in those seasons, falling short in the CL final (so in the 2010 and 2015 finals both teams were going for the treble). Plus Bayern were in contention for another treble in 2018 as were Barca last year, although they were both upset in their domestic cup finals after losing in the CL semis.

Barca (4 Copa Del Reys in a row from 2015-2018 with another final in 2019), Juve (4 Coppa Italias in a row from 2015-2018) and Bayern (4 DFB-Pokals and another final appearance in 7 years from 2013-2019) all having strong records in their domestic cups in recent years alongside their dominance of their respective leagues, has regularly put them in treble contention.

Eto'o being part of two different treble winning teams in back to back seasons was a pretty special achievement that's for sure.