Federer made hay, 12 titles before Djokovic and Nadal arrived - 8 after. Since 2008 Nadal and Djokovic have won 16 slams each, Federer 8.
Perhaps there's a flip side to this, which is that Federer has done remarkably well to keep picking up slams into his late 30s against two all time greats who both have five years on him.
The age difference between Federer and the other two mean that it's impossible to make a fair comparison, as much as you'd like to try. In the end this debate is all about opinions, it can't won by stats.
Nadal already has more slams in his 30s than Federer. Djokovic has the same amount of slams in his 30s as Federer.
And neither have had to deal with a couple of all time greats with five years on them while they picked up these titles in their 30s.
There just isn't enough concurrence for a fair statistical comparison, no matter how much you try to force it.
You're right, he didn't. Those five years he had on them he was able to pick up 12 slams in against guys who fell off the radar as soon as Nadal and Djokovic started to come to the age of winning slams.
It's a contradictory argument.
You need to look at the statistics and the context around them, they don't make good reading for Federer. They don't make good reading for Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Nalbandian, Davydenko or the rest of that era either.
Except that Fed raised the bar and changed Tennis to such a degree during those times that his competitors just could not compete and their games were too embedded to adapt.
The next generation had the advantage of using him as an example to aspire too.
Its like all those solo dummies Frank McGuigan used to sell, you could say he wouldnt have done that to defenders in the early 90s as they were better but he raised the bar for forwards so backs raised theirs.
That's fine but the Federer ended up struggling badly against Nadal and Djokovic once they came on the scene
Nadal has actually won as many non-clay court slams as Federer had since that dominant spell he had between 03-07 and Djokovic has won more non-clay slams in that time. Djokovic has won 15 slams between hard and grass courts from 08-19, Nadal and Federer are on 8 each from 08-19 between grass and hard courts.
You can make the point that Federer raised the bar but Nadal and Djokovic bettered him.
I wouldn't be so sure Nadal and Djokovic will go on and dominate the slams next year and the year after. I think the end of them will come suddenly. Nadal knows it, he was as emotional as I've ever seen him after winning on Sunday, he knew it represented one of his last chances. He'll be hoping he'll add another couple of slams in the next two years but I don't see him getting much more than that.
It's going to be very tight at the top at the end of it. People think Djokovic is going to dominate the next few years, I wouldn't be sure of that at all. He's 32 now, he had a shoulder injury this year. He went 8 slams without a victory after he captured the French Open in 2016 and ended up needing surgery on a troublesome elbow. Medvedev has arrived, I expect Zverev, Tsistispas, FAA, Rublev, Shapovalov and those guys to now start getting their act together, Medvedev has shown them the way. The slams for the big 3 will get tougher and tougher from here on in.