Sheffield United Caretakers Diary: Chaper 3: "Burn the thing down!"

[Dave Thacker]

I have to admit, I did not make a thorough analysis of the Blades’s roster until a few days ago. I knew they had an roster age issue. How old is old? Really old. The average age of the current Sheffield United rosters…

29.2

That’s right, the 23 man roster averages nearly 30. If we didn’t have that 19 year-old that the commissioner gifted us this season, we would average over 30. OK, deep breath, we thought we had a problem and we were right! Time for coffee. Let’s look at the positions. But wait there is one more thing to check related to age. Yes, re-rates.

After re-rating 11 years or older, the news was not great, but not horrible. The keeper lost an ST, that was be expected, but he will probably get back to form mid season. Only a couple of players lost more than one skill. A couple more of the 31 year olds didn’t lose any skills, just Abs. Probably no worse than drinking, and eating fast-food during the off-season. As we jump up to the Premiership, our skills our only slightly diminished.

The clock, however, is definitely ticking. For season 5:

• 36 years: 2 players
• 35 years: 2 players
• 34 years: 1 player
• 33 years: 1 player
• 32 years: 5 players
• 31 years: 2 players

I also have two worthless louts with no value on the books that will quietly retire.

If you look at by position group, it’s tolerable:

• Keeper: Leave him in place, he will have to retire at the end of next season and there’s a decent replacement in the Academy. One of the backups should retire. But I’ll keep him unless squad size allows me to cut him lost.
• DF: The entire defense can’t be replaced at the same time. The oldest DF will be in 34 and will be the first one to get replaced the others will be replaced when talent is available. There are two in the academy but they need at least 2 years to gain skills before they are ready to playing.
• MF: SU’s best AM is going to be 35 next season. Hopefully he can be sold. Maybe the Blades will get some SHN money for him. The rest of the mids will play Season 5.
• FW: A don’t think that the club can make many changes to this group. The backup FW is 35 and probably will have to play until retirement. I will keep them intact and hope for the best.

That will take me two players below the 23 player threshold. To test the value of the older players, I have put most of them on the transfer list. I’m holding back the keeper. I can work on replacing him next season. The club’s academy will have to replace the retirees. I have two forwards and an AM that I could bring up. They are not the best players, but they can probably grab a skill point in the coming and be at Championship level in season 6. Any funds I get from selling the older players will go for replacements, probably replacements that have lower skills.

The Academy is in fair shape . Last year my predecessor purchased two players but did not buy scouts. If I promote all 3 of the 19 year-olds, I’ll have 6 players. After season 5, there are 4 more eligible, so I will need to purchase players scouts to keep the pipeline full. That is is going to be a problems with Premiership prices.

So that’s my plan for this cycle’s roster changes. The permanent manager that takes on Sheffield United will have a slightly younger roster, but there will more work to do for them. The next order of business is the budget. Next chapter: “The root of all Evil”

Words: 650 for Sheffield United.