Average Age

[yakublue]

There should be a no over-25 policy, with the exception being we can attract someone of Sanchez' quality.

Totally agree. We should be building for the long term and not buying players that at or past their peak who will command high wages.

Thinking here of Williams, Rooney, bolasie, sigurdsson, Walcott

 

[d4kyxx]

take the defence as an example

Jags Williams and baines all need replacing. However you can’t replace all three in the summer. Maybe one. Due to lack of finances and the fact it has to be used throughout the team

So you replace one and your left with two who are getting worse weekly, meaning performances suffer

Whereas if you’d have signed younger defenders from the start you wouldn’t need to replace all in one go as the other two would still be capable

 

[Raino85]

We have bought a lot of 28-30 year olds in the past 18 months.

Reality is these 28-30 year olds were looking for abit of a payday/large contract as there careers havent took them to the upper echelons they had hoped when they were 23.

It will be hard to bring in that 22-25 year old i think, because any player worth his salt at that age will not want to be at everton, or the other teams will be interested in them. That is why the top 4 have such a young average age, because they get first pick of who they want

 

[Deleted member 41045]

David Moyes always waffled on about youth and then kept loads of players years over the hill and well past their sell by date.

Bet Finch Farm was full of wingback chairs in a semicircle around a small portable black and white telly.

 

[Boba Fret]

I thought this post was about @Boba Fret

Only as long as we talking about the women's team.

 

[bol-uk]

The current top four (two) have the lowest average age in the league

City and United but more recently but Spurs and Liverpool have always mainly targeted younger players. It’s done wonders for Liverpool and Spurs. And after City went stale a couple of years ago, they youthened the side and now look at them

I’ve said Everton need to do this for years and years. The proof is in the table, yet we never learn.

The current squad is ageing as has been for a long while. It’s stale and lacks intensity

Mate, they spent half a billion quid when they "youthened" (never an actual word surely) their side.

However, yes, we need to spend BIG on excellent young players, instead we spend frivolously on average but speculative youth and massively on god but over the hill players. It is a poor formula for sure.

 

[d4kyxx]

We have bought a lot of 28-30 year olds in the past 18 months.

Reality is these 28-30 year olds were looking for abit of a payday/large contract as there careers havent took them to the upper echelons they had hoped when they were 23.

It will be hard to bring in that 22-25 year old i think, because any player worth his salt at that age will not want to be at everton, or the other teams will be interested in them. That is why the top 4 have such a young average age, because they get first pick of who they want

28/30 players are great when they’re in their prime. But we sign them when they are past it and unwanted by other clubs

And the problem is when your building a team for the future signing these players is no good as by the time the younger players improve and you’ve built a team, these 28/30 players are suddenly 32/34 and then need replacing and your back to square one. It’s a constant battle

The other problem is when you sign older players you never get your money back. So your always down, and looking to find money to buy new players

Whereas younger players improve, price increases so you can either sell them at profit and have more money to buy even more players or if they turn out not to e as good as you hoped you can still sell them as they are young enough not to have lost much value if any

 

[Saint Domingo]

We hire poor managers who have to fall back on age and experience to make up for their failings.

 

[d4kyxx]

Mate, they spent half a billion quid when they "youthened" (never an actual word surely) their side.

However, yes, we need to spend BIG on excellent young players, instead we spend frivolously on average but speculative youth and massively on god but over the hill players. It is a poor formula for sure.

They didn’t spend half a billion, but we don’t need that kind of money to buy younger players

We spent 45m on Sigurdsson, 30 on Walcott, 35 on Bolasie all late late 20s

That kind of money could easily have bought top youngsters 20/21/22. It’s just our transfer policy is broken and thoughtless

 

[Barnfred 55]

The squad isn't really ageing to be fair. The first team maybe, but the squad has plenty of youth in it. Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Davies, Baningime, Vlasic, Lookman, DCL, Dowell, Onyekuru could all be first team regulars next season. That's almost an entire team with an average age of about 21.

It's not a novel idea, we've been trying to do it for years - Lukaku, Stones, Barkley, Deulofeu etc were the last lot we had, and we've invested heavily in the current youth set up. The problem is finding players who are both good enough and willing to hang around long enough for us to reap the benefits. DCL is older than Gabriel Jesus for example, but one of them is a regular Brazilian international who is a key player for the Champions, while the other one isn't allowed to be criticised when he misses from 1 yard out because he's only a young lad. Getting the very best young players is not as easy as it sounds, we're taking punts on the likes of Sandro but it's very different to bringing in top class prospects.

City's teenagers (Jesus, Sane, Sterling, Stones etc) all cost north of £35m. We paid £1.5m for DCL and a bit more for Holgate, Lookman, Onyekuru etc.

But fans expect the same results. City's teens were purchased first team ready. Ours need more developing but if we aren't, as fans prepared to give them the time to grow into premier football, I don't see the point in persuing this policy. We might as well buy premier ready players, but Siggy is about the best level we can get.

So we're not going anywhere really.

 

[gonetomorrow]

We want young, keen, smart and quick.

And that's just the manager.

 

[Raino85]

I think we have been scarred a little by attempting this with Barkley. Lukaku, Deulofeu & Stones.

We attempted to build a side around these 4 kids, with a few experienced heads (Howard, Jags, Barry) plus some hard working mid 20s (Coleman, McCarthy, Naismith)

It all went a bit pear shaped when we didnt stick to that strategy when Deulofeu returned to Barca and then it hurt us massivly having the "bigger teams" try and take our talented kids. It meant we couldnt build on that.

So we thought whats the point in developing these young players if they are just going to get taken off us! So we went for "tried and tested" best of the rest premier league players.

 

[bol-uk]

They didn’t spend half a billion, but we don’t need that kind of money to buy younger players

We spent 45m on Sigurdsson, 30 on Walcott, 35 on Bolasie all late late 20s

That kind of money could easily have bought top youngsters 20/21/22. It’s just our transfer policy is broken and thoughtless

I totally agree with you.

BTW City HAVE spent well over half a billion to remedy their situation, they spent over 300 million this year, over 200 million last year and 200mil the year before.

Even with Farhad we will NEVER compete with that.

 

[Lanolin]

City's teenagers (Jesus, Sane, Sterling, Stones etc) all cost north of £35m. We paid £1.5m for DCL and a bit more for Holgate, Lookman, Onyekuru etc.

But fans expect the same results. City's teens were purchased first team ready. Ours need more developing but if we aren't, as fans prepared to give them the time to grow into premier football, I don't see the point in persuing this policy. We might as well buy premier ready players, but Siggy is about the best level we can get.

So we're not going anywhere really.

Exactly, it's an easy strategy in theory, but it's extremely difficult to make it work.

I think we have been scarred a little by attempting this with Barkley. Lukaku, Deulofeu & Stones.

We attempted to build a side around these 4 kids, with a few experienced heads (Howard, Jags, Barry) plus some hard working mid 20s (Coleman, McCarthy, Naismith)

It all went a bit pear shaped when we didnt stick to that strategy when Deulofeu returned to Barca and then it hurt us massivly having the "bigger teams" try and take our talented kids. It meant we couldnt build on that.

So we thought whats the point in developing these young players if they are just going to get taken off us! So we went for "tried and tested" best of the rest premier league players.

Not really, we've carried on trying it and have actually spent (relatively) big money on the likes of Lookman and Vlasic.

 

[Zatara]

The current top four (two) have the lowest average age in the league

City and United but more recently but Spurs and Liverpool have always mainly targeted younger players. It’s done wonders for Liverpool and Spurs. And after City went stale a couple of years ago, they youthened the side and now look at them

I’ve said Everton need to do this for years and years. The proof is in the table, yet we never learn.

The current squad is ageing as has been for a long while. It’s stale and lacks intensity

Spot on.

There should be a no over-25 policy, with the exception being we can attract someone of Sanchez' quality.

Spot on.

The squad isn't really ageing to be fair. The first team maybe, but the squad has plenty of youth in it. Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Davies, Baningime, Vlasic, Lookman, DCL, Dowell, Onyekuru could all be first team regulars next season. That's almost an entire team with an average age of about 21.

It's not a novel idea, we've been trying to do it for years - Lukaku, Stones, Barkley, Deulofeu etc were the last lot we had, and we've invested heavily in the current youth set up. The problem is finding players who are both good enough and willing to hang around long enough for us to reap the benefits. DCL is older than Gabriel Jesus for example, but one of them is a regular Brazilian international who is a key player for the Champions, while the other one isn't allowed to be criticised when he misses from 1 yard out because he's only a young lad. Getting the very best young players is not as easy as it sounds, we're taking punts on the likes of Sandro but it's very different to bringing in top class prospects.

Even I can throw a few darts at a dartboard and get more hits than misses...

No one older than 21 allowed.

Heading towards Zatland there

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