Top 5 Youngest First Team Squads In The Premier League

David Tully

1 month ago

Categories: Galleries, Manchester City News

Tags: Arsenal, aston villa, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Southampton, spurs, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, wolves

The most successful squads of the Premier League era have had a mix of youth and experience.

Pundit Alan Hansen famously said that “you win nothing with kids” before Manchester United’s Class of ’92 played a pivotal role in the club’s period of dominance.

However, as we have seen with Chelsea over the last couple of years, you can go too far the other way. You need older mentors and role models to guide young players.

Press the next page as we count down the five youngest squads in the English top flight (stats taken from Transfermarkt).

5) Arsenal – 25.6

We could have picked four different clubs in 5th spot.

Quite remarkably, Liverpool, Wolves and Brentford’s squads have the exact same average age as the Gunners.

However, we have decided to focus on Mikel Arteta’s team, who (at the time of writing), sit top of the Premier League table.

Arsenal’s starting lineup is full of talented young players, including William Saliba (23), Bukayo Saka (22) and Gabriel Martinelli (22) who have all contributed massively to the club’s title challenge this season.

4) Brighton – 25.5

The Seagulls have become renowned for investing in young talent.

Having sold the likes of Moises Caicedo (22) for a British record £115m, the South Coast club have reinvested the money in players such as Bart Verbruggen (21) and Carlos Baleba (20).

They have also recruited teenagers Valentin Barco (Boca Juniors) and Ibrahim Osman (FC Nordsjaelland) for the start of next campaign.

Using data to guide them, Brighton are able to pick up gems for relatively low prices and turn them into star names.

3) Tottenham – 25.4

Spurs’s recent recruitment strategy has focused on signing players who are 24 or younger.

There have been exceptions to the rule, with the likes of James Maddison (27), Guglielmo Vicario (27) and Timo Werner (28) having been signed over the past 12 months.

However, the vast majority of the new recruits since January last year have been in their early 20s.

The arrivals of Destiny Udogie, Radu Dragusin, Micky van de Ven and Brennan Johnson have significantly reduced the average age of the first-team squad.

2) Burnley – 25.2

The Clarets have pursued a very different transfer strategy since Vincent Kompany’s appointment as head coach at the start of last season.

The last time that Burnley were in the top flight, Sean Dyche relied on the experience of seasoned pros to keep them afloat.

However, that approach has been ditched with the Lancashire club now prioritising the development of young players.

19 players in their 29-man squad are 25 years of age or lower, with the youngest being Luca Koleosho and Wilson Odobert.

1) Chelsea – 23.6

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that the Blues have come out on top of this list.

Since the arrival of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital as owners in 2022, they have focused heavily on investing in young talent.

Over £1bn has been spent on the first-team squad, but it has to be said that the results have not beared fruit yet.

Chelsea look set for a second consecutive season finishing midtable, and it has left plenty of fans questioning the club’s transfer business.