 |
| Myles Lewis-Skelly - age 18 |
The January transfer window means players like Manchester City's Kyle Walker (aged 34) are looking to transfer to a new club.
It will be unlikely that a big club will look at Walker because of his age. So, he's probably looking to manage his last few years playing at a lower league, then transition to something else in or out of football.
The life of a modern footballer is pretty short. Even someone like Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly, who is 18, will only expect to play until his mid 30s. After 14 years he's going to be tired!
Arsene Wenger explains the reality of this using a data metric called Top Score (points are awarded for actions such as the direction of passes):
We realised that at the age of 32 a midfielder had a defensive score that was going down but an offensive score that was rising, that he had less energy to go into battle but more to express himself, to be more tactical. Rationality makes it possible to better understand the world around us.
Teachers and administrators can relate to this. There are different ways to express yourself. Experience can do that.
I'm looking forward to my 43rd year as a teacher in 2025.
