Average Age

[Walsh]

Should we really be top?



I know we have the likes of Duff, Diarra, Schwarzer, Riise but I didn't expect us to have the oldest team in the Premiership.

[Mr Fulham]

What? We're consistently fielding teams that are 30+ on average. Week in, week out.

[MJG]

What? We're consistently fielding teams that are 30+ on average. Week in, week out.

When Kaca plays we take a whole year off the average

[JustOverTheRiver]

It would be comforting to know that we had a "next generation" wouldn't it?

[CH FFC]

That's not too bad, a few weeks ago we were listed us as the oldest "starting" team, an average age over 30.  QPR was the next closest with an avg 29.2 or something like that.

I guess this list is including the entire squad?

[JackyFulham90]

Just playing Schwarzer boosts our age massively but with Kaca , Dejagah & Rodallega playing yesterday also Senderos our age would have been lower than usual

[ffcbulgaria]

Schwarzer adds 1.5 years to the average alone.

[HatterDon]

Funny how we've gotten older since we signed Martin "I'm here to make the squad younger" Jol.

[The Equalizer]

Funny how we've gotten older since we signed Martin "I'm here to make the squad younger" Jol.

To be fair, Karagounis is the one who's making it so high. Jol might not be making the squad average younger, but he's certainly willing to play younger players on a regular basis, unlike Uncle Roy.

[zzamora]

Funny how we've gotten older since we signed Martin "I'm here to make the squad younger" Jol.

To be fair, Karagounis is the one who's making it so high. Jol might not be making the squad average younger, but he's certainly willing to play younger players on a regular basis, unlike Uncle Roy.

And Schwarzer distorts it massively.

Many people also forget how quickly dembele/dempsey moved. no time to replace.

Judge after this window I say.

[CurryForMario]

To be fair though, imagine 2 years time, Frei in the first team, Kaca, Briggs (possibly) and some more youth players firmly established, and then we'll realise that it's really not a huge problem having lots of experience to see them through at the moment.

[CH FFC]

the team reaks with age!!!

the 40's
Schwarzer 40

The thirty-somethings

Petric 31
berba 31
duff 33
davies 33
karagounis 35
sidwell 30
tavares 30
diarra 31
baird 30
riise 32
hughes 33
hangeland 31

The 20's

Stockdale 27
Somogyi 27
Ethridge 22
Senderos 27
Briggs 21
Kelly 29
Riether 29
Richardson 28
Kaca 21
Kasami 20
Dejagah 26
Ruiz 27
Rodallega 27

and one teen
Frei 19

This is too old....and in my opinion a bad sign for the future.  Of the younger players few have the potential to be much better, IMO>

[alfie]

Jol is trying to get the youngsters in, but when they have a bad game he gets moaned at on here that he selects the wrong squad.

It has been said so many times that he cannot get in any players until January, he has to play who he has available.

No matter what people say MAF is not going to give a massive amount of money, so he has get who he can get, a lot of the time it is not necessarily the transfer fee that is the problem it is the players demands that cause a transfer to fall over.

[ash]

Not a surprise at all.

[BishopsParkFantastic]

What? We're consistently fielding teams that are 30+ on average. Week in, week out.

When Kaca plays we take a whole year off the average

In every 1st team line-up with Kaca playing, average is near 31 years. Something has seriously gone wrong in the development of the young players in our 1st team squad this season - put it down to our backroom trainers and coaches at this level, and the loss of Ray Lewington. Jol does not put into action what he says - about reducing the age of our squad, about developing and giving our young players opportunities on a consistent basis. If Kasami, Briggs and Stockdale cannot get games now...when can they? The lack of quality and team structure around our young players when they do get 1st team opportunities, does not help them in their game or confidence.

[MJG]

What? We're consistently fielding teams that are 30+ on average. Week in, week out.

When Kaca plays we take a whole year off the average

In every 1st team line-up with Kaca playing, average is near 31 years. Something has seriously gone wrong in the development of the young players in our 1st team squad this season - put it down to our backroom trainers and coaches at this level, and the loss of Ray Lewington. Jol does not put into action what he says - about reducing the age of our squad, about developing and giving our young players opportunities on a consistent basis. If Kasami, Briggs and Stockdale cannot get games now...when can they? The lack of quality and team structure around our young players when they do get 1st team opportunities, does not help them in their game or confidence.

The trouble is we dont have any players in the team/squad aged 22-25. No resevers at all.
The youngsters in the squad are not playing enough (Frei,Kaca,Briggs,Kasami).

The money we have invested in buying a youth and development squad is all well and good, but they are all pretty much the same age 18-20 and it looks like none of them are even close to being a reserve for the first team.
In a year or two they will all need to have new contracts and will they have even played a game?
I think the plan is that by the start of 2014 season we should have 4-5 of the youth players ready and in the squad. I just cant see thats going to happen. If your 20/21 and only played 1 or 2 games your not ready.

The youth policy is great...if you use them.

[alfie]

What? We're consistently fielding teams that are 30+ on average. Week in, week out.

When Kaca plays we take a whole year off the average

In every 1st team line-up with Kaca playing, average is near 31 years. Something has seriously gone wrong in the development of the young players in our 1st team squad this season - put it down to our backroom trainers and coaches at this level, and the loss of Ray Lewington. Jol does not put into action what he says - about reducing the age of our squad, about developing and giving our young players opportunities on a consistent basis. If Kasami, Briggs and Stockdale cannot get games now...when can they? The lack of quality and team structure around our young players when they do get 1st team opportunities, does not help them in their game or confidence.

You can add that they just may not be good enough, again and again on this site we see the comment about we do not see what happens in training, the coaching may be first class the players may not be.

[SmithyFFC]

Funny how we've gotten older since we signed Martin "I'm here to make the squad younger" Jol.

For a while I honestly thought he WAS making progress in this department, but if anything he's increasing the average age at the moment!

[RidgeRider]

my view is we were investing in our academy in younger players well before Jol arrived. Not suggesting anyone thinks Jol started our youth movement but he certainly stated "we need to get younger". I think the problem he has seen as finding the right younger player that we can afford, is tricky.

Buying journeyman and ex-Stars who may be a tad past it, is far more sure way of ensuring Premier League survival than taking too much risk with the youngsters. It's tricky when you are mid-table team and can't take too many risks or you could be in for a survival scrap or you get caught up in trying to be a top 6-8 team and the senior players have the best chance of getting you there. Senior players many times are on shorter contracts as well which seems to work well for how MAF likes to operate.

I think Jol has done a decent job of balancing the youth with needing to deliver results.

My thought would be to stick with one of our youth players and let them play thru their learning curve. A guy like Kaca on the left comes to mind. He needs to play to get better, which means he needs to have good and bad matches to learn how to be a productive Prem player because he has the tools.

[BishopsParkFantastic]

What? We're consistently fielding teams that are 30+ on average. Week in, week out.

When Kaca plays we take a whole year off the average

And the average age of the 1st team is still over 30!