‘You can’t win anything with kids!’ This, of course, was the famous line uttered nearly 30 years ago by Alan Hansen on Match of the Day. The team he was talking about that day went on to quite convincingly prove him wrong, but how do his comments relate in the modern era of tier 3 and 4 football?
In League One, it is table topping Sheffield Wednesday who have the oldest squad and starting eleven in the league with averages of squad around 29 and having fielded a starting eleven high of over 30. Delving deeper into the squad that manager Darren Moore has put together in an attempt to get the Owls back into the Championship, the experience is spread through the team in what could be deemed as the core positions. Aden Flint at centre back, Liam Palmer alongside him playing behind Barry Bannan and Will Vaulks who have Josh Windass and Michael Smith ahead of them; all of these players are 29 or above and have all made 30 plus appearances this season, with the exception of Flint.
The average age of Wednesday’s starting eleven for the 17 players to have started their last 6 league matches, including Friday night’s draw against Bolton Wanderers is 28.6 years old (this would be as high as 29.2 had Cameron Dawson not replaced 37-year-old David Stockdale in goal). Despite being almost 2 years younger than the oldest team they have put out, 28.6 is still over 4 years older than the league average.
They are currently on a run of 23 games unbeaten that has seen them march their way to the top of the league and insert themselves as hot favourites for promotion. The men from Sheffield have enjoyed an excellent season so far and it is their ‘golden oldies’ that are helping to drive the team on. Twenty-nine-year-old Josh Windass and 31 year old striker Michael Smith lead the clubs scoring charts with 15 and 13 goals respectively while the defence, where 31 year old Liam Palmer is a firm fixture, has the best goals against record in he league.
Perhaps experience can be costly on the budget, but with the position Wednesday find themselves suggests that the decision to opt for players close to or beyond 30 is paying off and most would argue promotion is a matter of when not if.
At the other end of the League One age spectrum is 13th placed Lincoln City. Mark Kennedy’s men have a squad average age of just over 23.5 years old and the manager has named a starting eleven as young as 22.9. The Imps have only lost once since January 7th and the young squad have, it would certainly seem, got themselves to safety.
The eldest player in the squad at Sincil Bank is defender Joe Walsh at 30 and the youngest regular starter is 19-year-old Irish man Sean Roughan. Former Eastleigh man Ben House is the club’s top scorer with 8 goals, and he is still early 4 months shy of his 24th birthday.
The models and expectations of these two clubs are worlds apart. Sheffield Wednesday are the former Premier League club who are a huge club and feel they belong in the Championship (at worst) and need the success of promotion instantly so do not have the time to build a young squad with the future in mind. They need the here and the now. Wednesday are faced with the comments about players earning big money and the expectation that they should be promoted but a club of that size is far able to flex its financial muscles a little in order to sign players like Michael Smith or keep hold of players like Barry Bannan.
Lincoln City on the other hand are not in a rush to complete their process and have the time to be patient when building a squad and have the next few years in mind when signing players. Of course, signing younger players or dipping into the loan market usually means they are not having to spend as much and is with a view to signing, developing and selling these young players in the future to continue to the progression of the football club.
https://twitter.com/LincolnCity_FC/status/1636412012208201730?t=IRnUXqL0sfjZl4qhFCLfiA&s=19
Looking at the League One table, there is no clear correlation between the average age of the squad and league position. Examples being Barnsley pushing for a play-off spot with a averaging under 24 but also Forest Green Rovers with an average squad age of just over 24 seemingly doomed at the foot of the table. In contrast to this, aside from Wednesday, the play-off spots contain a Derby County side who average over 26 but Cambridge United occupy one of the four relegation places with a squad average age of just under 26.
Moving into League Two, I have used the average ages of starting elevens in order to split the teams as Swindon Town have a younger squad but Crewe Alexandra average a younger starting eleven. The season’s average for Crewe sits at 24 but this is shaved considerably in the last 6 games where the eleven players taking to the pitch at the start of the match had an average age of just over 23. Crewe currently sit 17th in League Two with a 13 point cushion over Crawley in 23rd so, barring a disaster, league football is assured for next season.
Crewe have a history of developing young players and giving them first team opportunities so it is perhaps no surprise to seem them continuing in this way. When looking at the previous 6 games, The Railwaymen differ from Sheffield Wednesday’s experienced core and instead have a defence marshalled by 23 year old in front of 18 year old loanee goalkeeper James Beadle.
Their midfield, in the previous 6 matches, is made up of players all under 25 years of age and their top scorer, Daniel Agyei, is also 25 years old. In fact, it is only Kelvin Mellor and Rod McDonald who are over 30 and have started any of Crewe’s games during this spell.
This is a squad of loan players, free transfers and those promoted from within and so will either continue to develop and improve together at the Mornflake Stadium or will be sold to those higher up the pyramid to be invested back into the club.
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The team with the oldest average starting eleven is 8th place play-off chasing Mansfield Town who are just under 29 years old, almost 5 years the senior of Crewe. The average age for the Stags is boosted by the inclusion in the starting line up of Lucas Akins (34), Stephen Quinn (36) and James Perch (37), not to mention stand in goalkeeper Scott Flinders (36).
The inclusion of the above players and fellow 30 pluses Jordan Bowery, Ollie Clarke and Danny Johnson have seen Mansfield start games with an eleven that averages almost 29.5 over the last 6 matches. Manager Nigel Clough has brought in players he knows from his time at Burton Albion, such as the aforementioned Quinn and Akins and also John-Joe O’Toole (34).
Mansfield Town and Crewe Alexandra, it could be argued, are teams with different objectives with the men from Field Mill desperate to achieve promotion in the near future whereas Crewe have their tradition to think of and won’t spend the sort of money other teams do on transfer fees and wages.
As with League One, the League Two table and the average age of the starting eleven does not correlate, an example being that the bottom two clubs are at opposite ends of the age ranges and two of the top three have squads in the youngest ten but the side that sits between them, Stevenage, has the 3rd oldest average age.
Away from the statistics and within danger of stating the obvious, age doesn’t matter but the type and quality of player does. Clubs will have different models and methods of working that may impact on the average age of their squad and some will do that with immediate goals at the forefront of their thinking whereas other will have longer term outcomes in mind. You could also argue, in regard to clubs like Crewe, that tradition plays a role in the way they operate.
A primary school teacher turned writer, Tom has been part of The Real EFL for two years. He focuses on predictions, deep dives, and insightful content.
