Average Age

[hongkongfulham]

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.

have to agree with all of this.

[A Humble Man]

Commentators have been making this point all season so this is not news.  It is irrelevant, look how well Duff still plays, look at the brilliant game Karagounis had, look how the ancient Bertatov makes football look easy.  Good players adapt their game to their age and frequently are better for it.