Compare & contrast these two. At what age is a player too young for Top level football ? Rooney & Phil Foden were mustard when many of their peers were still in metaphorical nappies.

at what age would you expect most players to be crocked and slowing down ? what about elderly record-breakers like Sheringham, Andrea Pirlo etc.

do amazing youngsters become amazing Veterans ? or burn out early.
do average youngsters become amazing Veterans ? Theirry Henry ?

What about playing style ? we can expect Pace from the kids ? and guile from old geezers ? is there more to it than that. The ability to control your temper, or sneaky gamesmanship ?

To what extent is a senior player unrecognizable from their early days ?

What about the Ian Wright types, who blossom relatively old into their career ? Wright the 18 year old kid ? not really Prem quality. Wayne Rooney at 18 ...yes.

The ability to handle the pressure off the pitch ? the champagne, the girls, the Ferrari's. Young or old players ?

How do the considerations above influence Managers & Dougie Freeman type recruiters.

Every team should have a good mix of youth and experience. Otherwise footballers would be like fashion models....finished at age 23. Or like Chinese Politicians....aged 95 and still going strong. I recall an Italian team in the Champions League final...and they were all ancient, in footballing terms ? anybody else remembers the details ?

James McArthur....what a legend. What an Eagle.

Name a famous teamful of kids ? England 1966 ? other ?

For the purposes of this thread, please ignore players aged between 22 and 32.

Kids versus Men.

Discuss

Edited by PalazioVecchio (09 Jun 2022 9.48pm)

Kayla did Anfield & Old Trafford

I seem to remember Ireland having quite an old team. Our team was old under Roy near the end.
I remember our mixture of grizzled players and youth before CPFC 2010 came in.

Interesting recent ones have been Chelsea with Lampard. Did he really play youth though?

Another would be Derby - forced on them but I thought they did pretty well in the circumstances.

My own feeling is, if you are in a relegation battle, or challenging for a title, you need a decent amount of experience. I wouldn't fancy a team of youngsters to stay up in particular. Derby nearly did it and I'm pretty sure they were the youngest team, on average, at least in their division.

Red and Blue Army!