AGE IS NO LONGER JUST A NUMBER

LLIE Pearce couldn’t have done much more to earn a shot at the EFL, but even a 30-goal season won't do the trick these days. Not if you're 29, anyway.

- 

Examples abound of wily veterans signed by canny managers whose inspiration-al impact has gone down in legend.

Teddy Sheringham was 31 when he made a £3.5m move to Manchester United in 1997. By the time he departed four years later, the striker had made 153 appearances, scored 46 goals, won three Premier league titles and collected the PFA Player of the Year award. There might have been a decent cameo at the Nou Camp, too...

Liverpool hadn’t won a sausage for six years when-to general bemusement - Gerard Houllier signed 35-year-old free agent Gary McAllister in the summer of 2000. The Scot played 49 times as the Reds completed a unique treble of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup.

"That’s what we signed mm for," said Houllier after McAllister’s penalty downed Barcelona in the UEFA Cup semi-finals. "When things get hot and tense, he is cool and composed."

Composed