Bit of a hole dug in this thread which has gone form Harry and his bad maths to his love of certain players, to signing 'old 30 year olds' and finally to he's rubbish let's get rid. On older players: most players reach their peak around 27 and this lasts until they are around 32. It's a short time so buying for players for the long term is not really an option in football. Ok you can buy youngsters (as we do) as an investment but this season we need the finished article on the 3 buys. Friedel is the finished article and top goalkeepers tend to be more consitent when older anyway. So that's good for starters. We need a top striker they tend to peak when younger, but PL experience would be the ideal. This is not season to be building for the future, we've done that, we need to add players for now and that means they will be older.
I think 3 is about right, anymore changes to the team and we'll be needing the dreaded settling in period.
Just don't think that the stats back up Drogba as a viable choice for NEW STRIKER role, as Spurf said earlier forwards are better (usually, not always mind) younger 25-28, whereas goalkeepers are better (usually, not always) older
lets be fair, ours wasn't a proper defence in the league last year (we shipped three to BLACKPOOL remember!) and that wasn't solely down to HG
