It's a valid point that my "all under 22" comment was an exaggeration but I still think your list proves that there has been a major shift in the style of roster building. Look at some of the key players on the championship team and the year they joined that look very little in both age and experience like the majority of our recent signings.
Chanot - 26
Callens - 25
Johnson - 28
Gudi - 29
Tinnerholm - 27
Maxi -30
Rocha - 26
Alfredo Morales - 31
Heber - 28
ITS - 25
There were many young guys that look like our current signings too but they were balanced out by the players listed above. My main complaint as I look at our current roster moves is that to me it looks like most of the selections are about what's best for CFG and not what's best for NYCFC. All the young guys are just dice rolls for CFG and I would also say the Martins move was a BS waste of a DP spot on our roster because CFG needed to move a player around within the org.
So, this is fair (though I would argue against the inclusion of Rocha as while he was a nice role player, I don't think he fits true roster building strategy in terms of big impact). But we are comparing 1.5 years of transfers in above to 6 years of transfers in with the players you listed:
2016 - Chanot
2017 - Sean Johnson, Alex Callens, Maxi Moralez
2018 - Anton Tinnerholm, Ismael Tajouri-Shradi
2019 - Heber, Rocha
2020 - Gudi
2021 - Alfredo Morales
In terms of veteran signings per year, I think the club is still wavering around the ~2 or so per year they generally do. I think it's just been exacerbated by the exodus of veteran players following last season.
Additionally, there are now initiatives designed by the league to have teams sign young players, specifically the young DP rule that using then triggers the U-22 spots. U-22 spots, as well as the YDP, cannot be used on guys that are less than 22 years old obviously.
GP, Santi's initial signing, Fernandez, Bakrar, Talles Magno, Thiago Andrade, these are all guys that fit under that initiative so I don't think it's really fair to compare their signings to the lack of veteran signings.
Yeah, the club is signing more young players than before, but their still signing veteran players at a similar pace as before as well. There's just now incentives for more money being splashed for younger players and not doing so is wasting those initiatives that cannot be used on older players
