Best Over 30 Signings.

[lfu]

7 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Pearson loved getting experienced players in. Seems to be knocked now. It's all about the right balance I guess but it seems to me Martin is trying to get the squad balance right like Pearson used too.

Pearson brought in players with (most of the time) good personalities who could lead by example

Whereas Rudkin, Congerton and Glover seemed to have ignored those prerequesites entirely

[Stadt]

23 minutes ago, OntarioFox said:

I'll just summarise what I said in the Wes Burns thread - the alternative is having the absolute bums we've got left in our squad continuing to be the "mentors" of the younger players in our squad. I'm really hoping the rumours of Choudhury going are true and we won't have our hierarchy trying to shoehorn him into our plans as club captain (), but even then who have you got? Misery-guts Mavididi, meek Oliver Skipp, Peter Pan impersonator Luke Thomas, Shitsy-Bitsy Teeny Weeny Bobby De-Cordova-Reidy? Or, god forbid, Faes is still here and imparts his incredible wisdom onto the backline. I completely understand the trepidation we now have as a fanbase for older players, but let's make no bones about it - our squad is uniquely awful. This level of failure is not normal for any club's older heads, and we shouldn't write off players who aren't the youngest but who are coming from clubs with a culture that isn't complete shite.

Our track record on senior players has been appalling ever since Pearson left (Huth and Fuchs being his last acquisitions), with the sole exception of the start of Evans' stint. But it's incredibly naive to assume a squad of young players, many of whom have never even played a competitive game for the club, should be tasked with working it out themselves over a season that's going to top 50 games once the cups are factored in.

 

The benchmark in recent years is Ayew and Coady. Honestly, the bar is at the bottom of the Mariana Trench at this point. I will reserve judgement until they've played a few games for us, but the likes of Burns, Chaplin and McCarthy merely have to perform to a basic level and not be absolute gobsites and it will already be an improvement to both our ability and mentality as a squad.

(Also Burns and Chaplin are 31 and 29 respectively, if they're over-the-hill then god forbid, I may as well skip the next 40 years of my life and start looking at retirement homes now). 

Well this is exactly what Cullen, Chaplin and McCartyhy have been signed for - and seemingly Burns too. Our new permanent signings have all been senior pros, we'll have more of those in the first team than actual young players. I think we'll have Alves + Braybrooke (not Page) start then maybe one RB. 3 young players from our own set up, I'm not bothered about McFarlane or Watson "learning" from anybody.

 

Our team will end up something like (ages aren't exact):

 

36

 

19 27 26 19/27

 

22 28

 

22  31 27

?

 

It's really not that young. Put Burns in over Alves and it's even older

 

[LeePhilpottsBaldSpot]

1 hour ago, OntarioFox said:

Misery-guts Mavididi, meek Oliver Skipp, Peter Pan impersonator Luke Thomas, Shitsy-Bitsy Teeny Weeny Bobby De-Cordova-Reidy? Or, god forbid, Faes is still here and imparts his incredible wisdom onto the backline.

 

Funny but also spot on. This isn't like adding an old head to the average dressing room, it's one that lacks professional behaviour.

 

I know we all want exciting young players, but they need to learn from good pros.

 

I'd rather we brought in a centre back with those qualities, but until we can shift Okoli or Faes and I can begrudgingly understand it's not the immediate priority.

[Flynny]

Barry Hayles 💪 

[shen]

Kevin Phillips was decent

[ParkerPen]

many good ones already mentioned, I'll add Tim Flowers

 

[TJB-fox]

How old were Steve Howard and Matt Oakley when they signed here they must have been pushing 30? 
 

Wasyl and Nobby Solano were the two that first came to mind - obviously not as good as Huth and Cambiasso etc.

[Blue-fox]

Was Fuchs over 30? Must have been close

[Clever Fox]

Cambiasco was the stand out player in every sense. He brought so much professionalism with him.

 

But one I liked a lot was Ulloa if he qualifies on age. Scored some great goals for us.

[Dan]

Boring answer but Huth. That was a massive shift for both clubs as Stoke went for the massively inferior Wollscheid and we got a player perfectly suited to how we played.

[Sly]

Huth is the correct answer in reality.

 

However like others have stated Cambiasso also deserves a mention for steadying that ship.

 

The other notable mention I’ll go for is Steve Howard. I think he was 31 / 32 when he signed for us. Great asset at the time and just what we required.

 

Thinking back to the O’Neill years, Tony Cottee  Garry Parker, Ian Marshall and Steve Claridge were all over 30 from memory. 
 

Coming into the Pearson years, Matt Oakley, Bruno Berner, Wayne Brown.

 

I don’t think you can really understand estimate the  value that someone like Kevin Phillips had either. 
 

Gokan Inler played a massive part in 2016 as well

 

 

 

[Phil_Dunphy]

Rufus Brevett

[FoxesFourLife]

Steve Walsh one of the best scouts ever.

Edited 5 August by FoxesFourLife

[South Shire Fox]

Cambiasso, Les Ferdinand, Bruno Berner, Nobby Solano, Tony Cottee

[melrose]

Ryan Bertrand

[Danizen]

An honourable mention for GTF. There's something so satisfying about seeing a guy that size dance around like he's Messi. 

[MPH]

Conor Coady

 

 

 

 

[MPH]

Honorable mention for Steve Claridge? Wasnt he about 30 when we signed him?

[ACF]

There’s only one answer and we all know that’s Bruno N’Gotty

[Glovermagic555]

The great late KEITH WELLER. He was 25 when Jimmy Bloomfield signed him from Millwall. 

 

What a fantastic player Keith Weller was. Remember that goal of the season at Luton?? Voted even better than Birch's thunderbolt at Filbert Street.

 

Happy days and RIP Keith

[Monk]

17 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Evans was pretty good until his “legs went”. 

 

Fixed it for you

[The Doctor]

7 hours ago, Glovermagic555 said:

The great late KEITH WELLER. He was 25 when Jimmy Bloomfield signed him from Millwall. 

 

What a fantastic player Keith Weller was. Remember that goal of the season at Luton?? Voted even better than Birch's thunderbolt at Filbert Street.

 

Happy days and RIP Keith

Best Over 30 Signings:

 

7 hours ago, Glovermagic555 said:

 He was 25

 

[Pliskin]

Cottee, and Sir Les!

[Fox92]

On 05/08/2026 at 13:25, lfu said:

Pearson brought in players with (most of the time) good personalities who could lead by example

Whereas Rudkin, Congerton and Glover seemed to have ignored those prerequesites entirely

I was on about Martin being here. I didn't mention the previous setup with Congerton, hence I compared Martin and Pearson.

Edited 6 August by Fox92

[CheeseHead]

Wes Burns?