虎扑体育网

The kids are alright: How the profile of Premier League transfers has changed

年轻人没问题：英超转会格局如何改变

Conor O'NeillJuly 24, 2025 12:15 pm

------------------------------------------------------

Under no circumstances should 27 be considered old.

在任何情况下，27岁都不应被视为老。

But football's transfer market rarely deals in conventional wisdom, and Arsenal's big-money move for the 27-year-old Viktor Gyokeres stands out as something of an old-age outlier, with the rest of the market pouring its resources into fresher-faced talent.

但足球转会市场很少遵循传统智慧，阿森纳斥巨资引进27岁的维克托·泽凯赖什显得像是一个高龄异类，而市场上其他参与者正将资源倾注于更年轻的面孔。

Liverpool's capture of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen this summer makes him the third player aged 22 or under to be signed by a Premier League club for £100million ($136.4m) or more in the past four seasons, joining Chelsea's Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

利物浦今夏从勒沃库森签下弗洛里安·维尔茨，使他成为过去四个赛季中第三位以1亿英镑或更高身价加盟英超俱乐部的22岁及以下球员，另外两位是切尔西的莫伊塞斯·凯塞多和恩佐·费尔南德斯。

Young talent is clearly in demand in the 2020s, but just how much have Premier League clubs shifted their recruitment towards attracting the shiny new wonderkids?

年轻天才在2020年代显然很抢手，但英超俱乐部究竟在多大程度上将招募重心转向吸引耀眼的新星？

A common way to measure this is by taking the average age of new signings, but this doesn't fully capture the nuances of modern squad-building. Clubs often bring in a flurry of budget signings to plug gaps rather than form a team's foundations.

衡量这一点的常见方法是计算新签约球员的平均年龄，但这并不能完全反映现代建队的细微差别。俱乐部常常会引进一批预算型签约来填补空缺，而非构建球队的基础。

When Arsenal paid Chelsea £5million for Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, it was as backup for David Raya --- a role reflected in the modest fee.

当阿森纳花费500万英镑从切尔西签下西班牙门将凯帕·阿里萨瓦拉加时，他是作为大卫·拉亚的替补——这一角色反映在了适中的费用上。

Instead, The Athletic has calculated average age by weighting a signing's age by their fee. The more expensive a player, the more importance is placed. This reduces the influence of the stopgap options and is more reflective of where the clubs' recruitment priorities lie.

因此，《The Athletic》通过用球员转会费加权其年龄来计算平均年龄。球员身价越高，其年龄所占权重就越大。这减少了临时替代选项的影响，更能反映俱乐部招募的优先重点所在。

The results confirm just how bullish the market has become on youth. The weighted average age dipped below 23 for the first time in Premier League history last season, and early signs from the 2025-26 summer window suggest that trend is continuing.

结果证实了市场对年轻球员变得多么乐观。上赛季，转会费加权平均年龄首次降至23岁以下，而2025-26夏季转会窗的早期迹象表明这一趋势仍在延续。

Any approach based on transfer fees inevitably favours financially dominant clubs. According to Transfermarkt estimates, Chelsea have spent £865million on players aged 21 or younger since BlueCo took over in May 2022, more than £400million ahead of the next biggest spender, Manchester City (£343million).

任何基于转会费的方法都不可避免地有利于财力雄厚的俱乐部。根据德转的估计，自BlueCo于2022年5月接手以来，切尔西在21岁及以下球员身上花费了8.65亿英镑，比第二大买家曼城（3.43亿英镑）高出超过4亿英镑。

And historically, it has been the stronger clubs that have tended to buy and sell younger players than the rest of the league. Premier League champions lead the way here and recruit youngest --- typically around 23 years old --- using their position of strength to refresh and evolve for a title defence.

从历史上看，实力更强的俱乐部往往比联赛其他球队更倾向于买卖年轻球员。英超冠军在这方面处于领先地位，他们招募的球员最年轻——通常在23岁左右——利用其优势地位进行更新换代以卫冕冠军。

At the other end of the table, relegation-threatened sides don't have that same luxury of long-term planning. With survival the priority, they tend to favour experience, signing players who are, on average, around two years older than those brought in by top clubs.

而在联赛榜尾，面临降级威胁的球队则没有这种长期规划的自由。以保级为优先目标，他们往往青睐经验，签下的球员平均年龄比顶级俱乐部引进的球员大两岁左右。

But the landscape is shifting. In his book Leading, Alex Ferguson wrote about the twofold benefits of youth: "Our emphasis on youth produced two things --- the pipeline of talent for the first team and a very healthy sideline business."

但格局正在发生变化。亚历克斯·弗格森爵士在他的书《领导力》中写到年轻球员的双重好处：“我们对年轻人的重视产生了两个结果——为一队输送人才的渠道和一桩非常健康的副业生意。”

During the final decade of Ferguson's reign, Manchester United had the youngest transfer-weighted average age in the league (23), closely followed by other financial behemoths of the era: Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

在弗格森执教的最后十年里，曼联拥有联赛中最年轻的转会费加权平均年龄（23岁），紧随其后的是当时的其他财力巨头：利物浦、切尔西、阿森纳和托特纳姆热刺。

Since then, the profile of clubs most focused on youth recruitment relative to their budget has changed dramatically.

自那以后，相对于其预算最专注于招募年轻球员的俱乐部类型已发生巨大变化。

It's no longer the preserve of the elite. Instead, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford --- clubs defined by data-first principles --- have emerged as the modern leaders of the trend.

这不再是精英俱乐部的专属。相反，以数据优先原则为特征的俱乐部——布莱顿霍夫阿尔比恩和布伦特福德——已成为这一潮流的现代引领者。

While Ferguson rightly highlighted the financial upside of signing young players and selling them on, United and other big clubs of the time were mostly acquiring young talent with the intention of keeping them at the elite level for years to come.

尽管弗格森正确地指出了签下年轻球员再出售的财务好处，但当时的曼联和其他大俱乐部主要是为了在未来多年内将这些年轻才俊保留在精英水平而进行收购。

Brighton and Brentford, by contrast, are far more aggressive in their sign-young, sell-high model, with their transfer-weighted average signing age more than a year younger than United's during Ferguson's final decade.

相比之下，布莱顿和布伦特福德在“低价签年轻球员，高价卖出”的模式上要激进得多，他们的转会费加权平均签约年龄比弗格森最后十年期间的曼联还要年轻一岁多。

Without the vast commercial revenues available to the 'Big Six', both clubs have leaned heavily on player trading to fund their rise. Brentford's then-co-director of football, Rasmus Ankersen --- now at Southampton --- outlined this philosophy in 2017: "You want to try to sign players who are in their peak or on their way to their peak, rather than being a declining asset." Former managers of both clubs, Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton and Thomas Frank at Brentford, have previously described their teams as "selling clubs".

由于没有“Big Six”俱乐部那样庞大的商业收入，这两家俱乐部都严重依赖球员交易来资助他们的崛起。布伦特福德当时的联合足球总监拉斯穆斯·安克森（现效力于南安普顿）在2017年概述了这一理念：“你要尝试签下处于巅峰期或正在走向巅峰期的球员，而不是正在贬值的资产。”两家俱乐部的前任主帅——布莱顿的罗伯托·德泽尔比和布伦特福德的托马斯·弗兰克——都曾将他们的球队描述为“出售型俱乐部”。

Both have been remarkably successful in executing that model. Chelsea under Clearlake and Todd Boehly may be aggressively buying youth, but it's often Brighton who get there first. Joao Pedro, Caicedo, and Marc Cucurella were all signed by Brighton before being sold on at a hefty profit, with Chelsea the buyer in each case.

两家俱乐部在执行这一模式上都取得了显著成功。在Clearlake和托德·伯利领导下的切尔西可能在积极收购年轻球员，但往往是布莱顿捷足先登。若昂·佩德罗、凯塞多和马克·库库雷利亚都是先被布莱顿签下，然后以丰厚利润售出，而买家每次都是切尔西。

Bryan Mbeumo joining Manchester United from Brentford for £71million this summer is a successful case study unfolding live in front of our eyes that ticks all the boxes.

布莱恩·姆贝莫今夏以7100万英镑从布伦特福德加盟曼联，就是一个正在我们眼前展开的成功案例，完美符合所有标准。

First, he is evidence of Brentford's ability to intelligently cast their recruitment net wider than the prominent European leagues, coming from second-tier French club Troyes in 2019, aged just 19. Now 25, there's evidence that Brentford might have sold him at the peak of his value.

首先，他证明了布伦特福德能够聪明地将招募网撒向比欧洲主流联赛更广的范围——2019年，年仅19岁的他从法国二级联赛球队特鲁瓦加盟。如今他25岁，有证据表明布伦特福德可能在他价值巅峰期将其出售。

The chart below shows the average fee paid for signings across different age brackets in the Premier League. Players between the ages of 21 and 25 tend to command the highest fees, before declining in value as they age.

下图显示了英超联赛中不同年龄段签约球员的平均费用。年龄在21至25岁之间的球员往往能获得最高的转会费，之后随着年龄增长，其价值会下降。

But it's not just understanding of player value that's fuelling the youth obsession; it's also about where on the pitch clubs are now focusing their spending.

但推动这种对年轻人痴迷的，不仅仅是对球员价值的理解；还关乎俱乐部现在将资金集中在球场的哪个位置。

In the 1990s, the brief for club directors from managers was often simple: get me a striker. In the early years of the transfer-window era, over 30 per cent of transfer spend was allocated to forwards.

在20世纪90年代，俱乐部总监从主教练那里得到的指示往往很简单：给我找个前锋。在转会窗时代的早期，超过30%的转会支出都分配给了前锋。

That trend is pronounced when you look at the progression of British transfer records from that era: Andy Cole, Stan Collymore and Alan Shearer all broke the record in the 1990s, all centre-forwards.

当你回顾那个时代英国转会费纪录的演变时，这一趋势非常明显：安迪·科尔、斯坦·科利莫尔和阿兰·希勒都在1990年代打破了纪录，而且都是中锋。

But as football evolved into an intense, high-pressing, positionally fluid game, the traditional centre-forward has fallen by the wayside, with the Premier League spending less than 20 per cent of its transfer funds on them in the previous four seasons. Their former prestige in the transfer market has gradually been eroded by versatile, high-energy attacking midfielders and wide forwards --- such as Wirtz.

但随着足球演变成一种高强度、高压迫、位置流动性强的比赛，传统中锋已逐渐失宠。在过去的四个赛季中，英超联赛在传统中锋身上的转会支出不到20%。他们昔日在转会市场上的声望逐渐被全能、高能的前腰和边锋（如维尔茨）所取代。

This summer could mark a turning point, as clubs shift their focus back to strikers. Hugo Ekitike has joined Liverpool in a lucrative transfer and Gyokeres is set to sign for Arsenal, while Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson could be on the move too after Enzo Maresca refreshed his forward line with the addition of Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

今夏可能标志着一个转折点，因为俱乐部将重心重新转回前锋身上。雨果·埃基蒂克已通过一笔利润丰厚的转会加盟利物浦，泽凯赖什即将签约阿森纳，而切尔西的尼古拉斯·杰克逊也可能离队，因为恩佐·马雷斯卡通过引进若昂·佩德罗和利亚姆·德拉普更新了他的锋线。

Centre-forwards typically take longer to reach their peak, with physical strength playing a more critical role in their development. Using the share of minutes played by age across each position as a proxy for peak age, centre-forwards tend to be most prominent around 27 --- roughly two years later than central attacking midfielders and the same age as Gyokeres is now. Signing younger attacking midfielders offers both the promise of quicker on-pitch impact and the opportunity to capitalise on their resale value.

中锋通常需要更长时间才能达到巅峰，身体力量在其发展中起着更关键的作用。以各位置不同年龄球员的上场时间份额作为巅峰年龄的参考，中锋往往在27岁左右达到顶峰——比前腰大约晚两年，与泽凯赖什现在的年龄相同。签下更年轻的前腰则既有望更快地在球场上产生影响，也有机会利用其转售价值。

Clubs agitating over peak age and transfer values in the centre-forward market risk going too early on promising but unproven strikers and missing out on the glaringly obvious. Arsenal need a potent goalgetter to spearhead their dangerous attacking unit, and Gyokeres resoundingly fits that bill --- his age is a peripheral concern for Mikel Arteta.

俱乐部在中锋市场上过于纠结巅峰年龄和转会价值，可能会过早押注于有潜力但未经证实的射手，从而错失显而易见的即战力。阿森纳需要一位高效射手来引领他们极具威胁的攻击群，而泽凯赖什完全符合要求——他的年龄对米克尔·阿尔特塔来说只是次要考虑。

Ferguson wrote that when United signed Robin van Persie for £24million in 2012, the largest fee the club had paid for a player over the age of 27, "the only questions the Glazers asked were about his age", an indication that they were concerned about buying a declining asset.

Despite his 26 goals propelling United to their last league title in 2012-13, the Glazers' concerns were financially justified, with Van Persie sold to Fenerbahce for just £4million after three seasons.

Van Persie's bright but brief flame at United embodies the tension between short-term success and sustainable long-term performance that is at the heart of all transfer decisions. Arsenal are taking the similar view as United did back then, prioritising immediate impact over future upside and are desperate for the same results.

The rest of the league, meanwhile, are largely taking the long-term view, backing young prospects to boldly lead them into the future.

与此同时，联赛中的其他俱乐部则大多着眼于长远，押注年轻新秀，让他们勇敢地引领球队走向未来。