Not a knock on you but I think there's some recency bias going on.
While the concentration of money/resources has continued to intensify in the Premier League, I suspect the likes of Keane, Duff and Given in their primes would still be stars at premier league level if they were dropped into a team today. I think Given is probably the one that would find it difficult to play at a team in the top half of the table because he was never the best with his ball at his feet, which is now an expected part of the role for a top 10 premier league team, and probably throughout the league.
Likewise Finnan, Staunton and Harte were part of teams that achieved major success, whether at the top in England or in European competition. Gary Kelly was probably at that level too despite the lack of trophies.
I like Cullen a lot but he has a lot of work ahead of him to have a career as good as Holland and Kinsella. Neither of them were stars but they were very solid pros for a long time.
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