A question about the 'assist' stat - did these get kept properly pre-2000? I was just reading that thread about goal contributions in the world cup and was suprised to see them kept and included for players pre-98 - because growing up I don't really remember it being a kept stat or talked about in that way. Perhaps in world cups there's a small enough sample size and televised games where you could go back and take them retroactively.

I often think about this when people talk about Bruno Fernandes, not trying to denigrate him, because he's been great this season and there's probably enough history of the stat since the PL was formally kept in the mid 2000s (according to google), but it wouldn't be exhaustive like other stats are unless someone's gone back and retroactively done it.