The CIES Football Observatory have capped off the international break with an interesting graphic comparing the average age of players recruited in the last 5 years compared to the 5 years before that.
Chelsea are 5th in the table, but the whole league is trending younger, with only 7 teams having signed older, and only 2 teams older by more than a year on average.
You can see the whole league’s numbers in the graphic embedded here:
First-team signings' recruitment age trend (2019-24 vs 2014-19), 🏴 @premierleague teams 📈 From ➖3.37 years for @OfficialBHAFC to ➕1.59 for @BrentfordFC 🤠 @ChelseaFC @LFC @Arsenal & @ManCity ⬇️ @SpursOfficial & @ManUtd ⬆️ Full data 👉 https://t.co/ydbrUO7fRK pic.twitter.com/qfaMSSGrwe
— CIES Football Obs (@CIES_Football) March 28, 2024
Our policy has clearly been pretty significant, but it’s interesting that we’re still only 5thin the league, and at -1.37 our average signing age has come down far less than table topping Brighton at -3.37.
But let’s remember this is a 2019 to 2014 average. If we keep up our same policy and redo it again to cover 2022 to 2026 in a few years, we will see ours plunging even more than Brighton.
