This could be worth a seperate thread, a comparison of each club's young players and whether they were purchased or developed locally could be really interesting. I implore one of you footballing tragics (I mean this in a very endearing way) to give it a whirl.
I decided to investigate the above comment and produce a decent spreadsheet with data from 2010-2015 about the top 8 EPL teams.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C1F2SU7glZ...
(Sources: transfermarkt.com and premierleague.com)
Here are a few interesting points:
- Only 5% of Chelsea’s purchases have been English. 27% of United’s have been English and 24% of Liverpool’s.
- Chelsea has only 3 home-grown players in the current squad. United has 12 while both Liverpool and Tottenham have 9.
- Chelsea has also had the lowest average number of home-grown players in their squad over the past 5 seasons (5.2). Arsenal only has an average of 6.4, while United’s average is 12.2 and Newcastle’s is 11.2.
- However, the average age of Chelsea’s purchases have been 22.2 years old. United’s was 22.5, while Everton’s and Tottenham’s were above 25.5.
- Everton has bought the highest number (27%) of players 29 or older, while 20% of City’s purchases were 29 or older. (United = 5%, Chelsea and Newcastle = 7%)
- 68% of both Arsenal’s and Everton’s purchases were still at the club. United still has 64% of their purchases while Chelsea only has 39% and Liverpool has 42%.