An Entire Team Of 30 Plus Players

[Seanjd]

I always get a bit over obsessed with the age of footballers and liken it to everyday life too much. If someone tells me they're 33, they're due for retirement.

 

[Brennan]

The Howard deal was ludicrous. I don't think the blame can be placed with the manager, it seems to be a club thing to give older players unnecessary contracts.

 

[Khalekan]

It was worse then.

Yes....it was.


In mitigation, I would suggest that being over 30 for today's generation of footballers is a different thing to what it was even as recently as the turn of the century.

The active and effective life of a pro footballer lasts longer these days.

 

[Seanjd]

Absolutely. It's just about a balance of youth and experience, of which ours is very healthy when everyone is fit.

 

[Dario Terracotta]

relax,many a fine tune and all that

 

[Robertor]

Southall said last night that Martinez will have to sell a big name (Barkley) to fix our back line. 30 mil for 3 defenders and goalie if we are to keep going forward as the back 5 arent getting any younger..

Love Southall and all but he's a bit of a nutter. Does my head in when past players start with all these comments about what's going to happen with the first team. I'm pretty certain that Kenwright or Martinez won't be giving Neville Southall updates on the state of our finances. All we need is a keeper and to put faith in our youngsters. Look at Everton over the last 10/12 years and that shows that loads of money isn't especially needed to find top class players.

 

[Furey1878]

Sell them all to make glue.

 

[1966efc]

Once they're in the tunnel, I think they do very well to remember where they're going and why they're going there. Credit where credit's due.

 

[ToffeeDan]

5 or 6 of the present squad are clearly not going to be around in 2 years time. That doesn't constitute a crisis when

a) you have time to replace them
b) there are replacements already coming through
c) they aren't critical first teamers

So, Hibbert, Osman, Distin, Pienaar for starters - and almost certainly Barry won't be part of the team come 16-17. Where we have a few over 30s in our team that is countered by the significant level of experience our squad has playing together as we surely have the most long serving (at current club) squad in the Prem.

Hibbert is already fringe, Stones clearly is earmarked for centre back and we have plenty of midfielders in the squad - it's just natural wastage or - like any work environment - people move on and new staff are trained up.

 

[strummer]

Its gonna be expensive to replace some of our ageing players.i think it was right to give the likes of hibbert and distin a contract because they've been needed but surely its the last season for theose 2.with a couple of others not far behind them

 

[bizzaro]

How did prioritising Lukaku prevent replacing those three? They'd have probably received a small fee for Osman and got three wages to spend on replacements...and he could then also have fast-tracked the introduction of these youngsters coming through.

The truth is, it wasn't a difficult decision to make in relation to three players well into their 30s.

You're turning this into another Naismith thread posting absolute drivel

 

[toffeejack]

Southall said last night that Martinez will have to sell a big name (Barkley) to fix our back line. 30 mil for 3 defenders and goalie if we are to keep going forward as the back 5 arent getting any younger..

no offence to southall, but all of his opinions are a bit off. we have the best full backs in the league and great backups at LB. we have one of the brightest CB prospects in the world as well. we need 1 or 2 CB's max and a RB backup and a new keeper. but nowhere near £30m worth. we could offload a couple of the CB's for a small fee, but i doubt anyone would pay us for distin or possibly alcaraz. if we could convert oviedo to a RB that would be bliss.

quite simply, every squad needs experience, especially experienced backups (based on this season probably not), but we don't have the finances to buy two players for each position with both players in their prime. players don't want that either.

 

[toffeejack]

also we seem to have so many youth prospects coming through as well, martinez recognises this. you see players like kenny very highly rated and in a couple of years can step up to be our second choice RB - this is why someone like Hibbert is given a contract extension (imo) - what would be the point in going out and buying a backup RB just for about 2-3 years - holding back a promising youngster in the process.

we could fill that void with loans, like we seemingly seem to be looking at with montoya.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I hope the same, however I do fear that sometimes we as fans can get carried away with the younger players potential.

Stones has already shown he's able to be in (or at least around) the starting XI on a regular basis. In the nicest of ways, he's a freak of nature.

Garbutt has also began to show real glimpses of quality. He played well in Wolfsburg. Also, I thought he was a cut above the rest on Thursday.

Browning and Galloway? I'm not so sure, or at least I've not yet seen enough of them to say, "They'll be in our starting XI in a year".

I'm not saying they won't, and I certainly hope they do. Yet, it's not guaranteed! Furthermore, can we expect them to be ready for next season?

Therefore, I do think we need to invest in at least one centre half before August, if not earlier. Not too old, but with experience and proven ability.

Baines, Garbutt, Jagielka, Stones, <Insert Name>, Alcaraz, Galloway, Coleman and Browning. I'd settle for that. Replace Alcaraz and I'll be happy.

Yes, I like to think that Galloway and Browning will eventually replace Distin and Alcaraz. So it kind of depends how long Jags can last for. If he can remain around for another 3-4 years then it's no problem imo as Stones is already an international so relatively experienced already for one so young. Him and Jags as first choice for the next couple of years with the other two gradually building up experience.

 

[R.E.T.N.U.B]

I always get a bit over obsessed with the age of footballers and liken it to everyday life too much. If someone tells me they're 33, they're due for retirement.

John Terry 34' Frank Lampard 36, not doing to bad a job for the champions and champions elect !