Snowflake RoyalSCIAGSnowflake Royal There's a misunderstanding here. I'm not against experience. I'm against signing expensive 'names' well into the twilight of their career. Particularly if they have little Champ experience.
See Ferdinand, Keown, Roberts, Martin, Bridge, etc.
The players we can only hope to sign because they're no longer that good and looking for one last pay day. Plus the risk of long term injury and lack of recovery is higher.
Roberts dramatically increased our chances of getting injured. Bridge had just had a great season with Brighton and played really well for us before an unfortunate injury. Not sure they're the best examples. Anton Ferdinand would probably be better (I assume that by "Ferdinand" you mean Les, who is an even better example).
I have no idea why you're throwing Martin in there. He's only 29 and has never been a Premier League player (5 appearances). He's a top-end Championship striker who isn't producing, rather than a former PL striker dropping down in the hope it will be easier.
Martin - expensive, suspect attitude, downward spiral career wise.
Anton's also a good shout.
Bridge is still an example even though he looked quality (and is comparable to (Roberts)... Older players are more prone to injury and failure to return from injury the same or at all.
Our record in the area of signing 'names' like these is atrocious. For the most part, we just shouldn't.
Just to play devils advocate, we have seen some success with players deemed past their twilight years. To name a few who were previously PL players:
Glenn Murray
Ulises De La Cruz
Ian Harte
John Salako
Shaun Goater