I'm not really trying to State rules as much as guidelines. Is there a time when spending big on someone approaching 30 might be warranted? Of course. Is it possible a cheap deal for a 31 year old might be good? Sure. But by and large they should be avoided. All the ones that have come up so far this summer are big red lettered NOs for me. I know people disagree because they want to see success now but my perspective is we are at least two seasons away just on the basis of needing to spend time working out what system we want to commit to.
I think from a business point you are right, the balance of the squad needs to be young, take someone like Iwobi he’s likely as bad a signing as Bolaise, but in five years time and 28 when we have payed of his amort, we still have resale value, I see what Brands is doing there and it’s clever. Also head room for development. So in the main you want the majority of your squad in that profile. There are risks involved, lack of expierence, leadership etc. Time to develop etc.
So I think it’s prudent to take on a measure of risk, of an older profile a player, but the judgement on value has to be made in regard to fee and the value to the squad, that value, May have a short shelf life 3-4 years and no resale, but short term effectiveness may lead to secondary rewards. Hypothetically if signing Allan enabled us to qualify for Europe 3 seasons out of four, and 7 places higher in the league, it’s a no brainier.
In a real world decision, do you sign Allan or stick with young players and play Davies to start the season and let him develop.
So I think a mix of 75/25 80/20 is acceptable and intelligent if I’m honest.
The other thing to remember about young players is we are fattening calf’s as a business model, already this summer there is a tacit acceptance Richarlison is going next year, it’s frankly the greasy pole we have to climb, as is getting the expierenced players in to make a short term difference.
The concept of value is fascinating and we all have different ways of weighting it, think it’s important we don’t ignore any open to us.
