melbourne, some of those are really crap to be honest.
1) Requelme Player of the Year? You said it yourself, the likes of Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Sheva, Carlos, Del Piero, etc were all playing during their prime. I would not give it to Requelme over any of those. During every year, at least a few of those players as well as many others played better and more important roles than Riquelme.
2) The level of football has declined of the past years. I don't know about that really. I guess it's a decent arguement but we still have great experienced players as well as far more quality youngsters that are playing immense at the moment. Previously, we did not have as many superstars at such young ages. Also, Kaka is not the only great player out there right now. To say that is stupid. He is not much better than Ronaldo or Messi. Face it. Just look at his team and their performance in Serie A. If Ronaldo's or Messi's team was playing that poorly, I'm sure you'd have a go at Messi or Ronaldo, yet you put no blame on Milan's key player.
3) Liverpool did not deserve to win 2005 CL. And neither did Man U when they beat Bayern in 2000. And neither did a lot of other teams. Luck and your quality of play during a few matches can win the tournament for you. It's as simple as that. By the way, I'm not disagreeing with you on this one that much. I just think you have to give them credit for tactically outsmarting teams and never giving up. After all, Liverpool was the team that has probably given us the best CL final we will see for the next 10 years.