Burnley have the oldest squad in the premier league with an average age of 28......interesting.
'PL squads compared'

http://www.skysports.com/share/11473284" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice stats.

The other thing I took from that is how many Premier League games we have in the squad. Amazed how high we are.

Socrates wrote:Nice stats.

The other thing I took from that is how many Premier League games we have in the squad. Amazed how high we are.

We probably have as many champs league appearances across the squad as we did prem appearances when Dyche first took us up. Experience throughout the squad now.

Our experience was the thing that stood out for me as well.

"Manchester United have the most experienced Premier League squad, collectively racking up 3,009 appearances in England's top flight, followed by Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton and Burnley."

What a lovely sentence that is for us!!

Our GK department must be the most experienced in the league this season:
Joe Hart 322 apps
Tom Heaton 77
Nick Pope 35
Anders Lindegaard 19

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top ... ppearances

And quite a number of clubs are more “English” than we are. So we might be old but we’re experienced and with a balance of nationalities

Our squad age isn't really a problem, provided we keep it under review and take steps to renew it in key areas. We work on a 3 year player turnover generally speaking, and if you throw that forwards, an average age of 31 wouldn't be "too old" in itself (but it would be very short term).

That's one reason why another midfielder/wide player this summer would have been nice. It'd have become a bit of succession planning.

Stats about appearances etc. very interesting.

claretspice wrote:Our squad age isn't really a problem, provided we keep it under review and take steps to renew it in key areas. We work on a 3 year player turnover generally speaking, and if you throw that forwards, an average age of 31 wouldn't be "too old" in itself (but it would be very short term).

That's one reason why another midfielder/wide player this summer would have been nice. It'd have become a bit of succession planning.

Stats about appearances etc. very interesting.

Even if it was 29 year old Bolasie?

The experience of our squad compared with other recently promoted teams is interesting.

I assume the clubs have had to name their 25 man squads by now? I was expecting a few clubs to struggle naming 25 players with a max of 17 non homegrown players. Teams like Watford, West Ham and Arsenal don't seem to have many home grown players.

Tall Paul wrote:Even if it was 29 year old Bolasie?

Well, no. But then that's why I personally wasn't in favour of signing Bolassie. I did quite like the idea of James Ward Prowse, though.

There's absolutely no immediate problem, but I do think this is the point at which the its important that Dyche is counter balanced within the club when it comes to signings. He should always have a veto over signing players, but equally there's a role for someone else to ensure that that there's a long term view being taken in. Even a manager like Dyche who clearly buys into the idea of a long term plan has an in-built temptation to take a more short term focus - a seasoned pro here might make it a really good season now rather than a good season, and he might get that move to a bigger club etc. - so that seasoned pro might be in ours and Dyche's short-term interests, but it might not be the right thing looking further ahead. I'm not suggesting Dyche does think that way - I've really no idea - but its a natural temptation.

I'm sure we do this - I know Garlick is hands on when it comes to signings, so I'm very relaxed - but its an interesting dynamic nonetheless.