A fresh survey has revealed that West Ham United still possess one of the Premier League's oldest squads - although the club are finally moving in the right direction.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side have long been considered one of, if not the oldest first team squads in the division. However a new survey, conducted by SportsCasting, confirms the Hammers are now out of the relegation zone as far as average squad age is concerned.Following the club's recruitment of a string of younger players during the summer transfer window - a policy driven by the since-fired Graham Potter and Kyle Macauley - West Ham now possess the league's 17th oldest squad.
Soungoutoo Magassa, Malickl Diouf, Mateus Fernandes and Mads Hermansen have all helped to reduce the squad's average age to 28.03 years, although the free transfer signings of 33-year-old veteran striker Callum Wilson and Lukasz Fabianski, 40, mitigated those reductions to some degree.
Helped by the departure of players such as Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio and Vladimir Coufal, all of whom were the wrong side of 30, West Ham now boast a younger average age than Newcastle United, Everton and the League's current oldest squad, Fulham.
However only four other clubs - Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Burnley boast squads with an average age over 27.
At the other end of the average age league table, Brentford have invested mostly in youth and sit top with a figure of just 24.76 years - marginally above Premier League newcomers Sunderland at 24.79. The full table is as follows.
* Something to say about this story? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.
