No climate change soon: Man City and Liverpool have most sustainable squads; Arsenal’s false dawn

Man Cty and Etihad

November 11 – A ranking of clubs by ‘sustainability’ has found that Manchester City and Liverpool are teams that are built to last and predicts they will dominate for some to come yet.

The CIES Football Observatory’s Sustainable Squad Management (SSM) Index combines players’ age (the younger, the better), average stay in the first team squad (the longer, the better) and contract duration (the longer, the better). The employment rate of each is also considered as a weighting factor (more minutes, greater importance).

Man City top the ranking followed by Real Sociedad and Liverpool.

“Guardiola’s team fields slightly younger line-ups than big-5 league rivals (27.06 years vs 27.13). Moreover, players fielded have been for much longer in the first team squad (3.32 years vs 2.34) and have much longer contracts (3.32 years vs 2.30). The Basques field much younger line-ups (25.62 years) and their values in terms of stability (3.04 years) and contract duration (2.49 years) also are above the average,” say the report authors.

“Spezia Calcio fielded so far the youngest line-ups (24.61 years), while the longest average stay for players fielded was recorded for Burnley (4.07 years).”

Arsenal fans who have been celebrating a return to winning ways might be celebrating too early. The report finds that while “the longest “on the pitch” average contract remaining duration was measured for Arsenal (3.69 years), and that they fielded by far the youngest line-ups in the Premier League (24.86 years), their stability is for now well below the big- 5 league average (1.75 years only).

To see the full report click here.

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