Age concern for Appy

Michael Appleton has pledged to rejuvenate his ageing Pompey squad.

That is providing he is given the January transfer window green light.

As it stands, the average age of the Blues’ first-team squad is almost 29.

Of those 19 players, more than half are aged above 30.

It is a statistic which deeply concerns Pompey boss Appleton as he seeks to assemble a Fratton Park side for the long-term.

Hermann Hreidarsson (37), Kanu (35), Benjani Mwaruwari (33) and Ricardo Rocha (33) are the elder statesmen in his current set-up.

At the other end of the age spectrum, he has Ryan Williams (18), Marko Futacs (21), Joel Ward (22) and Stephen Henderson (23).

For Appleton, it is essential he slashes the average age of his squad.

He fears the current thirty-something make-up could impact heavily on his side’s progress towards the end of the season as fatigue sets in.

In November he brought in teenager George Thorne and 21-year-old Joe Mattock on loan to pep up his team after speaking of the importance of introducing youth.

Now both have returned to parent club West Brom after their loan spells came to an end.

Appleton already has the smallest squad in the Football League.

And he is desperate to add more younger players to it.

He said: ‘Out of our squad of 19, we have 10 of them aged 30-plus.

‘It’s just getting the balance right. Having that many can’t be right.

‘We have got to realise, having a lot of players here the wrong side of 30 doesn’t help.

‘The problem you get sometimes with that is they tend to do okay up until the end of January/February time, but that is when you need a real squad.