Loyalty in football is rare nowadays with most players quickly moving on to a different club elsewhere due to many different circumstances. However, in England’s fourth division, there are a few examples of players that have been through the hard times and the good at one specific club over a long period. The Real EFL’s Jordan will create a five-a-side team based on the league’s longest-serving players.
When we look at clubs in the Premier League conducting their business, whether that is in the summer or midway through the season in January, the money being spent and the lengths of some of the contracts being handed out might be seen as eye-watering to some.
However, when we look down to the depths of League Two, the clubs at that level don’t have the money nor are in a position to offer massive contracts that are seen in England’s top flight, none more so than Chelsea who are in a position to spend hundreds of millions on players and tying them down to eight-year contracts.
Most of the contracts being handed out by League Two sides are normally shorter-term contracts that only last for a couple of years and in January specifically, most of the contracts being handed out by clubs for permanent transfers are normally seen as short-term.
In terms of how this team will be set out, it will consist of one goalkeeper, one defender, two midfielders and a striker. When I was conducting some research for this piece, in terms of League One, the seven longest-serving players were all in fact defenders.
However, League Two seems to be a lot broader in terms of defenders and midfielders, with a surprising lack of attack-minded players. With this in mind, some players are not included in this squad for that reason.
To be able to put this squad together, we have used the ‘longest-serving players’ list that has been put together on the Transfermarkt website.
We have also done a longest-serving five-a-side team for League One, written by The Real EFL’s Callum so be sure to check that out if you haven’t done so already.
Anyway, let’s get creating our team…
