The Ageing Game

FOOTBALL – Manchester City opened its new £200 million academy in December 2014 but young talents have been given very little opportunity at City in recent seasons. A new piece of research looks at how the age structures of teams in the Premier League have changed and why Manchester City are probably on the verge of needing a serious change in order to sustain their success of recent years.    

Football players can be broadly divided into three age categories ; young players who are building up their experience (“Talents”), players with a good balance of experience and relative youth (“Peak Age”) and those whose physical abilities are not what they once were (“Veterans”).  Below is a generalised curve, based on the minutes played by players of different ages in the Premier League over 12 seasons, which illustrates this.

 

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