I meant more the likes of Bolasie, Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson etc. They were all 27 when we signed them, there's absolutely nothing wrong with signing 27 year olds; it's very marginally older than the profile of most of the players we've signed under Brands and in many ways is the ideal age. The problem is they weren't particularly good 27 year olds, and so haven't been value for money. I think there's only a couple of players Walsh signed who were 'old', he actually signed more young players than Brands I would say. He signed some absolute rubbish though, that's the problem.
I think there's a lot of discussion in all of them. I mean Bolasie got a terrible injury and the other two have been underwhelming but have had their moments. For the most part I think Schneiderlin was probably a little under appreciated, Sigurdsson very little defence for.
To me I think we got caught on the tail end of the transfer market for over 27's. Because of the ridiculous rules of FFP people search for younger and younger players, to essentially sell on to manipulate a profit and avoids punishment (this could all be solved if FFP was removed). Value of players, is now increasingly moving from what they contribute on the pitch to what they can be sold for. The problem is, that the age profile of valued players keeps getting younger and younger and the time players lose values younger and younger too. It used to be mid 30's, then it went to around 30 and no fee, now we are close to players approaching 27 have no inherent value. During this pandemic it will be interesting where it ends. (Interestingly, Keynes said a lot of similar things about the sort of nonsensical anarchy of the stock markets).
Either way, we got caught being the last team to be paying for such players. We employed a manager who was obsessed with the immediate term, one who wanted players between 25-30, a DOF who lacked either the foresight, the negotiation ability nor the strength of character to manage Koeman and negotiate the deals properly, and we thus got lumbered having to pay big fees. I mean, certainly with Schneiderlin we could not have likely got a 2 year loan deal with some sort of nominal option to buy. We should have walked away from Sigurdsson and Bolasie.
They were all good players though. And have all underperformed. I was never SIgurdssons biggest fan but he hasn't really hit the heights he did at Swansea, and Schneiderlin/Bolasie haven't got close either. It's a kick in the teeth, as they were all fairly low risk, high cost, small reward players. You'd have thought they would all be decent and dependable. Had they have been, we would have probably been cemented as the 7th best team comfortably and in a season where the top 6 cam apart been well placed to move forward. Those 3 have let us down, along with to a degree Keane, increasingly Pickford etc (though he has been a bit better overall).
As you say though it doesn't mean all 27 year olds are bad. I think a lot of people are sinking into this. If the right deal is available for Coutinho, James, Allan, Koulibaly and we had the funds to do it, we should do it. I don't hold much truck for this approach that you have to do it the hipster way of signing 21 year olds and developing them. I also think, you can do things alongside one another. However 27 is peak years. If you can sign high quality players, who we feel the manager can get something out of I'm all for it. What you should be doing is paying massive premiums and long contracts for decent players.