The Leagues Youngest Team

[TopCat]

A team of boys? Kelly and Naismith played pretty much all last season, Mclean and Mcginn are Scotland U21 regulars. Reilly has been around the first team squad for a couple of years although he hasnt played as much as the others and Drury and Plummer were his signings. Havent done the maths but I doubt our average age is much younger than the majority of other teams in the league.

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After reading this, I thought I'd do the maths, using the starting 11's of all 12 SPFL teams this weekend to work out the average age. Here's the table:

1) St Mirren 23.72

2) Celtic 24.18

3) Partick Thistle 24.36

4) Hamilton 24.72

5) Kilmarnock 25.18

6) ICT 25.81

7) Aberdeen 26.00

8) Dundee Utd 26.00

9) Ross County 26.81

10) Dundee 27.18

11) St Johnstone 29.81

12 Motherwell 30.18

There you go. We are the youngest team in the league, and by a bit of a distance too. The club and management deserve credit for that, especially given so many of these young players are graduates from our academy. The teams on either side of us in the league - Well and St Johnstone - have over 6 years experience on us on average.

Our young players have been thrown into the deep end given our injuries, and I think they're doing okay all things considered. Especially given how bad a start we had in losing first 5 games. To turn that around and get us out of and then clear of the bottom 2 by the 11th game is pretty impressive stuff. Here's hoping the experience they're gaining stands us in good stead for the rest of the campaign, we continue to improve and we keep moving up the league.

[Mid Calder Saint]

Craig merely forced into playing youth due to injuries to our 36 year old guys plus the likes of Osbourne. Still have no time for our manager.

[Thorizaar]

Which young players have been thrown in at the deep end due to injuries? With the exception of Reilly and perhaps Ball, all the youngsters are first picks and have been for some time so would be playing regardless of injuries.

[TopCat]

Which young players have been thrown in at the deep end due to injuries? With the exception of Reilly and perhaps Ball, all the youngsters are first picks and have been for some time so would be playing regardless of injuries.

Well you ask the question and then you answer it. I don't think Drury and Caldwell would have had as much game time had Teale and Thompson been fit either.

[Isle Of Bute Saint]

Have we got the youngest stadium also ? The oldest manager and the 'worst' sausage rolls I have ever tasted in any Scottish football ground. Waking up on match day is not very exciting these day's. St Mirren come from the biggest town in Scotland and to top it all off we have the youngest team in the SPL , thank Christ for that here was me thinking we were just shite.

[Dare]

As they say if you are good enough then you are old enough ..... bottom line is we have 1 point from 18 from six home games in the league. That would suggest that perhaps we ain't really that good !

[bluto]

As they say if you are good enough then you are old enough ..... bottom line is we have 1 point from 18 from six home games in the league. That would suggest that perhaps we ain't really that good !

This thread's original thrust still holds true.

St Mirren is the youngest team in the league...

AND...

...Saints are currently better than at least two other teams in the top Scottish league.

This suggests to me that these lads really ARE rather good.

[insaintee]

Which young players have been thrown in at the deep end due to injuries? With the exception of Reilly and perhaps Ball, all the youngsters are first picks and have been for some time so would be playing regardless of injuries.

That's kind of the point

[kevo_smfc]

Craig merely forced into playing youth due to injuries to our 36 year old guys plus the likes of Osbourne. Still have no time for our manager.

That was the philosophy the club went for prior to any injuries.

[irvine_buddie]

After reading this, I thought I'd do the maths, using the starting 11's of all 12 SPFL teams this weekend to work out the average age. Here's the table:

1) St Mirren 23.72

2) Celtic 24.18

3) Partick Thistle 24.36

4) Hamilton 24.72

5) Kilmarnock 25.18

6) ICT 25.81

7) Aberdeen 26.00

8) Dundee Utd 26.00

9) Ross County 26.81

10) Dundee 27.18

11) St Johnstone 29.81

12 Motherwell 30.18

There you go. We are the youngest team in the league, and by a bit of a distance too. The club and management deserve credit for that, especially given so many of these young players are graduates from our academy. The teams on either side of us in the league - Well and St Johnstone - have over 6 years experience on us on average.

Our young players have been thrown into the deep end given our injuries, and I think they're doing okay all things considered. Especially given how bad a start we had in losing first 5 games. To turn that around and get us out of and then clear of the bottom 2 by the 11th game is pretty impressive stuff. Here's hoping the experience they're gaining stands us in good stead for the rest of the campaign, we continue to improve and we keep moving up the league.

As I said.. too much time on you hands but fair enough interesting to see we are the youngest in the league. I thought we would have been pretty much on a par with most other teams.

Don't think it's an excuse for poor performances though, Dundee Utd last year had a very young team and did well. Mclean, McGinn, Kelly and Naismith all have plenty of experience already despite their age.

ETA - Didn't realise Ball is only 22.. he's younger than me! Looks old enoug to be my dad!

Edited October 28, 2014 by irvine_buddie

[windae cleaner]

This thread's original thrust still holds true.

St Mirren is the youngest team in the league...

AND...

...Saints are currently better than at least two other teams in the top Scottish league.

This suggests to me that these lads really ARE rather good.

The young players are our better players by far

Apart from Tess our signings have been very very poor

Just think how good it could be if we gave the youth development our full attention

[TopCat]

The young players are our better players by far

Apart from Tess our signings have been very very poor

Just think how good it could be if we gave the youth development our full attention

Very poor?

Caldwell has two goals and an assist, Ball has two goals and an assist and Drury has three goals. That's a very poor return from 3 young players?

For the purpose of comparison, last seasons signings returned a combined season total of (from memory) 2 goals and 1 assist. Those signings included experienced forward players like Harkins and Magennis.

This seasons signings have already blown last seasons signings total return out the water, and we aren't even in November. If they have been very poor, what were last seasons?

What are you expecting from them?

[TopCat]

As I said.. too much time on you hands but fair enough interesting to see we are the youngest in the league. I thought we would have been pretty much on a par with most other teams.

Don't think it's an excuse for poor performances though, Dundee Utd last year had a very young team and did well. Mclean, McGinn, Kelly and Naismith all have plenty of experience already despite their age.

ETA - Didn't realise Ball is only 22.. he's younger than me! Looks old enoug to be my dad!

Took about 20 minutes, was something I'd been meaning to check for a while.

Regarding Ball, he's just turned 22 this month. McGinn has just had a birthday too. Had I done this last month when they were younger and Marwood was starting ahead of Tess, our average age would have been even lower.

[dave.j]

1) St Mirren 23.72

2) Celtic 24.18

3) Partick Thistle 24.36

4) Hamilton 24.72

5) Kilmarnock 25.18

6) ICT 25.81

7) Aberdeen 26.00

8) Dundee Utd 26.00

9) Ross County 26.81

10) Dundee 27.18

11) St Johnstone 29.81

12 Motherwell 30.18

There you go. We are the youngest team in the league, and by a bit of a distance too.

Define by a bit of distance. Celtics average age is only 6 months greater!

[TopCat]

Define by a bit of distance. Celtics average age is only 6 months greater!

Well 6 months greater is a bit of a distance by my definition. It's not as if it's by decimal points and days, like a lot of the other teams in the league are separated by.

And as with all aspects of football, you can't really compare Celtic with the rest of the league. They heavily rotate their squad in a way which no one else does. The average age of their squad will be far higher than the team they had out on Saturday.

[irvine_buddie]

Dundee Utd's much touted young team of last year has fair jumped up in age with the loss of Robertson and Gauld.

[davidg]

Well 6 months greater is a bit of a distance by my definition. It's not as if it's by decimal points and days, like a lot of the other teams in the league are separated by.

And as with all aspects of football, you can't really compare Celtic with the rest of the league. They heavily rotate their squad in a way which no one else does. The average age of their squad will be far higher than the team they had out on Saturday.

I'd agree, 6 months average across the team is the same as replacing 2 rookies with 25 year olds with plenty of experience.

[Lord Pityme]

After reading this, I thought I'd do the maths, using the starting 11's of all 12 SPFL teams this weekend to work out the average age. Here's the table:

1) St Mirren 23.72

2) Celtic 24.18

3) Partick Thistle 24.36

4) Hamilton 24.72

5) Kilmarnock 25.18

6) ICT 25.81

7) Aberdeen 26.00

8) Dundee Utd 26.00

9) Ross County 26.81

10) Dundee 27.18

11) St Johnstone 29.81

12 Motherwell 30.18

There you go. We are the youngest team in the league, and by a bit of a distance too. The club and management deserve credit for that, especially given so many of these young players are graduates from our academy. The teams on either side of us in the league - Well and St Johnstone - have over 6 years experience on us on average.

Our young players have been thrown into the deep end given our injuries, and I think they're doing okay all things considered. Especially given how bad a start we had in losing first 5 games. To turn that around and get us out of and then clear of the bottom 2 by the 11th game is pretty impressive stuff. Here's hoping the experience they're gaining stands us in good stead for the rest of the campaign, we continue to improve and we keep moving up the league.

I blame zero hour & £1 contracts!

[Dirty Sanchez]

The conclusions are flimsy because only whole years are being used.

The starting data has zero decimal places, which renders the two decimal places in the results as irrelevant.

Not to mention that the starting data is only a snapshot in time.

ln the form given, with no further analysis, all this shows is that a few teams in the league, including Saints, have young players.

[windae cleaner]

Very poor?

Caldwell has two goals and an assist, Ball has two goals and an assist and Drury has three goals. That's a very poor return from 3 young players?

For the purpose of comparison, last seasons signings returned a combined season total of (from memory) 2 goals and 1 assist. Those signings included experienced forward players like Harkins and Magennis.

This seasons signings have already blown last seasons signings total return out the water, and we aren't even in November. If they have been very poor, what were last seasons?

What are you expecting from them?

Over all still poor giving the amount of game time especially Ball

Don't match them up against last season's poor signings even though the 2 you have mentioned are now playing well at other clubs

[TopCat]

The conclusions are flimsy because only whole years are being used.

The starting data has zero decimal places, which renders the two decimal places in the results as irrelevant.

Not to mention that the starting data is only a snapshot in time.

ln the form given, with no further analysis, all this shows is that a few teams in the league, including Saints, have young players.

It wasn't intended to be strictly scientific, more a general idea.

To be scientific you'd need to use starting 11's from the whole season and use the players age in days, not years. To be frank, I couldn't be arsed doing that.

If I had done however, I'm pretty certain we'd be even further clear at the top of the table.

Remarkably, 6 of our starting 11 from Saturday have had a birthday since September 5th. (Kello, McAusland, Drury, Ball, Reilly and McGinn). I'd be astounded if most of any other teams starting 11 had had a birthday in the last 6 weeks.

So, using whole years as opposed to days has actually skewed the data against us.

[Ayrshire Saints]

So given Accies are only exactly a year per head older than us, do you expect that by this time next season (assuming we are still in this league) this same group of players will be capable of collecting 23 points from the first 11 games...........................no neither do I so what has age really got to do with it.

It's all down to ability be that players or coach, age is pretty much irrelevant. The group of players we have right now could stay together for the next 10 years and they would NEVER be capable of collecting 23 points in 11 matches, they are just not good enough to do that. Add in that our players despite their age will have more Prem experience than Hamilton's and you see just how poorly we are performing. We should be capable of collecting as many points as a Killie or Hamilton but our players are just not as good as theirs. Going for youth or experience, scraping about trying to eek out sufficient points to stay up after this number of season in the top flight is just not good enough. The fact we have been unable to even come close to a top 6 finish is a nonsense.

[Dibbles old paperboy]

After reading this, I thought I'd do the maths, using the starting 11's of all 12 SPFL teams this weekend to work out the average age. Here's the table:

1) St Mirren 23.72

2) Celtic 24.18

3) Partick Thistle 24.36

4) Hamilton 24.72

5) Kilmarnock 25.18

6) ICT 25.81

7) Aberdeen 26.00

8) Dundee Utd 26.00

9) Ross County 26.81

10) Dundee 27.18

11) St Johnstone 29.81

12 Motherwell 30.18

There you go. We are the youngest team in the league, and by a bit of a distance too. The club and management deserve credit for that, especially given so many of these young players are graduates from our academy. The teams on either side of us in the league - Well and St Johnstone - have over 6 years experience on us on average.

Our young players have been thrown into the deep end given our injuries, and I think they're doing okay all things considered. Especially given how bad a start we had in losing first 5 games. To turn that around and get us out of and then clear of the bottom 2 by the 11th game is pretty impressive stuff. Here's hoping the experience they're gaining stands us in good stead for the rest of the campaign, we continue to improve and we keep moving up the league.

I'm not sure this shows us anything remarkable about St Mirren, our average age is just under 24, Celtic, Partick Thistle and Hamilton have an average age of 24-25, and 4 more teams have an average age of 26 or under. At the minute the top 6 is full of teams who are below the average age squad and ourselves and Partick Thistle are the only young squads in the bottom half.

Here's a stat for you Top Cat. After the first round of games Dundee have got double the amount of points we have - despite being full of guys like Harkins and Clarkson (4 goals in 3 SPL starts and a goal in 4 games in a row - compare that with Ball, Marwood and Caldwell) that you said we could do without.

[TopCat]

So given Accies are only exactly a year per head older than us, do you expect that by this time next season (assuming we are still in this league) this same group of players will be capable of collecting 23 points from the first 11 games...........................no neither do I so what has age really got to do with it.

It's all down to ability be that players or coach, age is pretty much irrelevant. The group of players we have right now could stay together for the next 10 years and they would NEVER be capable of collecting 23 points in 11 matches, they are just not good enough to do that. Add in that our players despite their age will have more Prem experience than Hamilton's and you see just how poorly we are performing. We should be capable of collecting as many points as a Killie or Hamilton but our players are just not as good as theirs. Going for youth or experience, scraping about trying to eek out sufficient points to stay up after this number of season in the top flight is just not good enough. The fact we have been unable to even come close to a top 6 finish is a nonsense.

I bet Accies would much rather have just had the 5 years we've had than the 5 years they've had. They've had a good start, we will see where they finish.

Why compare us to them and not, Falkirk, Hibs or Dunfermline? All clubs similar or larger than ourselves, all in a far worse state than us. Why the negativity?

[TopCat]

I'm not sure this shows us anything remarkable about St Mirren, our average age is just under 24, Celtic, Partick Thistle and Hamilton have an average age of 24-25, and 4 more teams have an average age of 26 or under. At the minute the top 6 is full of teams who are below the average age squad and ourselves and Partick Thistle are the only young squads in the bottom half.

Here's a stat for you Top Cat. After the first round of games Dundee have got double the amount of points we have - despite being full of guys like Harkins and Clarkson (4 goals in 3 SPL starts and a goal in 4 games in a row - compare that with Ball, Marwood and Caldwell) that you said we could do without.

You've got yourself in a right tizzy about David Clarkson, haven't you?

Both Motherwell and Killie had him on trial, both turned him down. He's went to Dundee and had a good start, why are you in such a state about it?

Do you think we can afford to bring in other players but are choosing not to?

Nearly all teams who come up have a honeymoon period. Dunfermline had one, they were relegated. Partick Thistle had one last year, they were above us for a good while at the start of last season, they then finished below us. How many points were Hibs above us at this stage last season?

We will see where Dundee end up. Why are you so negative?