Is building the oldest side in the EFL good business?
Ali Maxwell asks whether age really is just a number as Mansfield prepare for the new season following their best league finish in 48 years.
Notts County may be the oldest club in the EFL, but 15 miles up the road is the oldest team, Mansfield Town, and they’re getting older this summer.
Per FBref, Mansfield’s average player age last season (weighted by minutes played rather than total squad age) was 28.9 years old. The previous season it was 30.1, the only instance I can find of an average player age over 30 in the last decade of EFL football, a period that covers 720 squads.
In that time period, Darren Moore’s Sheffield Wednesday and Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe are the main Dad’s Army contenders, but Nigel Clough’s Stags are a cut above. They are currently rivalled by League One newcomers MK Dons, whose average age last season was actually a touch higher at 29.1. However, Mansfield’s summer signings so far include David McGoldrick, 38, and Michael Smith, 34, and their expected game-time will raise the average age significantly, unlike MK’s four signings so far: 29, 29, 30 and 30.
Look, I know average age numbers aren’t that sexy to most people, so let’s break this down in other ways. Mansfield’s current first-team squad of 22 contains:
12 players aged 30 or over (55%)
18 players aged 27 or over (82%)
Three players 26 or under (14%)
The youngest player, Nathan Moriah-Welsh, is 24.
This week, target man Smith (34), formerly of Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday and most recently Preston, joined Clough’s five-man striking unit as the third youngest. Will Evans (29) and Rhys Oates (31) are the whippersnappers, David McGoldrick (38) and Lucas Akins (37) the elders.
Mansfield have been the oldest team in their division for the last four completed seasons, so this isn’t something new, nor is it a random coincidence - we’re in clear, targeted strategy territory.
Is it a good strategy, and for how long can it last?
