Sergio Busquets and Pedro do not expect Barcelona or Spain to return to the heights that allowed them to dominate world football.
Barca were considered to be among the best club sides the sport has seen during Pep Guardiola's reign, which lasted from 2008 and 2012, while the Spanish national side won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.
However, with many of the key players from both sides either having retired or entered the final years of their careers, the teams' golden eras appear to have passed.
Busquets, who won two Champions Leagues with Barca as well as the World Cup and 2012 European Championship with La Roja, told COPE's "El partido de las 12" radio programme that he did not believe the current crop of players for either side could match their predecessors.
"Football evolves," he said. "It is impossible that everything can stay the same. We won't see the best Barca again, nor the best national team."
While Vicente del Bosque, who took over Spain after the Euro 2008 success, remains in charge of the national side, Barca are on their third permanent manager since Guardiola's exit in 2012.
Busquets believes Luis Enrique has much in common with the current Bayern Munich coach, but said Guardiola -- who coached the midfielder with Barca B before promoting him to the first team -- was superior.
"Luis Enrique and Guardiola are very similar. They seem about the same, although Luis Enrique is more stern," he said.
"Guardiola gave me my debut. He is crazy about football. I will always be grateful. He is going to be the best coach I will have had in my career."
The 26-year-old acknowledged that he had not enjoyed his best campaign on a personal level, rating his start at six out of 10.
On Enrique's reign, he added: "We started well and everything seemed like it was going great. He is a new coach and we have to get used to him. Now we are not doing so well but not as bad as others are saying."
Pedro, who plays alongside Busquets for club and country, agreed with his teammate that a return to former glories was unlikely.
"It's difficult because that era, six years ago, was so special and there were so many great players," he told the media. "Like Sergio says, I think it's going to be difficult to repeat those years when we had so much success, although both Barca and Spain have sufficient quality in their current squads to try to achieve it. That's what we have to do."
Pedro has had limited involvement under Luis Enrique and, asked whether that meant he was even more determined to impress on international duty, he said: "I always have to perform to my best, that's been the case for the past few years.
"Vicente has given me a lot of confidence and, while it's true that it's difficult getting regular minutes with Barca, I am confident that I will continue performing as I have been doing until now."