Player's age gap replacement strategy, do you have one?

[Hieberflab]

Hi all,

I would like to ask if you guys have any strategy in place when it comes to buying rotation players/back up and possibly youngsters. Like for example what age gap should the First Team players and rotation players (or backup) be? At what age should the senior player be before you find youngsters to replace him, i.e when he is reaches 30 or when he has 1 more year in his contract before he retires (at age 33/34). So to clarify what I am asking, I want to know age gap between Seniors - rotation/backup - youngsters. The reason I am asking this is because I buy players without paying much attention to their age and when it comes to their retirement age I have 2-3 players retiring at the same time so this is something i want to avoid. I normally use a squad size of 25 - 11 FT and 11 Rotation + 3 youngsters (U21).

Kind Regards,

Jon 

[Marc Vaughan]

I personally keep players slightly differently according to their roles and playing styles - players which are reliant on pace I tend to start to move on earlier than others (normally around 30-31 I start looking for replacements like you've indicated you do), other positions I ten to keep later depending on their performances ... although I'm always looking to have a backup in place by  the time someone is 33 its entirely possible I'll loan him out to give him experience intially.

[Deisler26]

I don't buy players, but once the backups look like they're ready for a full first team role, I make sure THEY have a backup, then sell the starter. There should be three per position at all times for me.

[fish18ish]

It varies, but because I rarely manage a team that stays at the same level for long, players don't tend to stay long enough for me to need to worry about their retirement. But I tend to bring in promising players between 16 and 18 yrs old on the cheap to ensure I have options when the time comes to fill a void. Or failing that they can be sold for a tidy profit. I wouldn't over think it though, if anything it can be nice to have a club legend retire at the club. A high turnover of personnel can spoil that romanticism, which has led to me ditching saves on many occasions to to a loss of attachment to the squad.