YOU know you are getting old when you find yourself agreeing with your dad most of the time.

But, while chewing the fat with the old man the  other week over the state of modern football, it was  difficult not to continually nod in agreement.

“I don’t recognise it, son,” said the septuagenarian  as he gulped on his mug of coffee. “I watch the game  on the telly, but it’s not the game I remember.”

This is someone who knows his onions, having  watched Everton and Liverpool on a weekly basis  throughout his teenage years and beyond before,  until the last 18 months, attending a match at least  once a fortnight.

Football has transformed immensely for the better  throughout that half-century, from developments in  fitness, tactics and equipment to improvements in  stadia that have left them light years from the often  ramshackle grounds of yesteryear.

But the game itself was largely the same. Players  ran around, passed the ball, headed it. Strikers shot.  Goalkeepers saved. Referees officiated.

There was also tackling. That, though, is now in  danger of being eradicated from the game completely  as football stands on the precipice of becoming a  largely non-contact sport.

Not all change is good.

Few things can motivate a crowd quite as much a  crunching challenge, yet recent evidence suggests  players will soon be too scared to even go near an  opponent.

Witness the furore at Eastlands during the past  week or so. In the Premier League game against  Liverpool, Gareth Barry was sent off for two fouls  that, if we are being honest, barely merited a booking between them.

Then on Sunday, Vincent Kompany was dismissed  for what in the eyes of many was a fair but firm  tackle on Nani, leading to Roberto Mancini’s indignation when Glen Johnson escaped censure for a  similar challenge on Joleon Lescott.

Nobody wants players going round kicking each  other up in the air and launching into wild, dangerous challenges.

But these are grown men. They can look after  themselves.