Quote:
Originally Posted by Eto'odinho
Calm down Pogey, I'll give you the injury bit for majority of those players BUT Alan Smith was considerably better at 18 than he was at 25, I'm sure there are plenty more of his kind. It just goes on to show that age doesn't necessarily translate to an upward improvement of a player.
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It does. Always.
Obviously, injuries muddy the waters, as do players who don't put the effort in in training.
What seems to be confusing you is that it's quite possible for a players to be a prodigy at 18 but an average player at 25. They haven't got worse as footballers, in fact they've got better. But, crucially, they've got better by a lesser amount than their peers (through injuries, laziness whatever) which makes them seem to go backwards but all they've actually done is go backwards compared to everyone else.
If you were to take any of the players you first mentioned and somehow play them alongside their 18 year-old selves, they would almost always be better footballers in their mid-twenties than they were in their teens.
Obviously, there are some exceptions. If someone picks up a really serious injury (with permanent sequelae) or if someone just takes the piss in training and stops making any effort at all - then, and only then, they might actually deteriorate as a player. Otherwise, every single professional footballer will improve over the course of their professional career (up until their mid to late twenties at least)