Premier League squad rules & how they may affect us

[Forbury Lion]

The article is from the start of the 2010-11 season, but I've not seen or heard anything to suggest the rules have changed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 858634.stm

In and around this year's usual summer transfer gossip, you may have noticed the mention of 25-man squads and home-grown player quotas.
The 2010-11 Premier League season will see top flight clubs forced to comply with rules over the size and make-up of their squads.
The Premier League says the new rules are designed to increase the number of young 'home-grown' players in the Premier League, with a long-term aim of giving more options to the England manager.
But what will they actually mean in practice? BBC Sport explains the key points of the new system:
- Clubs register a squad of up to 25 players, which must include at least eight 'home-grown' players, at the end of each transfer window.
- Home-grown players do not have to be English; home-grown players are defined as those who "irrespective of nationality or age, have been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to 21st birthday"
- Clubs can supplement squad with unlimited number of players under the age of 21.
- Changes can be made only during transfer windows, although in exceptional circumstances (eg goalkeeping injury crisis) moves could be allowed.
- Players loaned to Football League clubs cannot be replaced, but can regain their spot on return to parent club.
- Rules apply only to Premier League matches, not European, FA Cup or League Cup action.
- First deadline is 1700 BST on 1 September (24 hours after end of August transfer window).

These rules may influence who stays, who goes and who comes in. Although it's already been announced he's moving on, I believe these rules would have forced Gunnarsson out of the squad as he isn't under 21 and I don't believe he was homegrown (although I at be mistaken).

[From Despair To Where?]

Gylfi was with us for more than 3 years before his 21st Birthday so yes, he would be classed as home grown.

[NR_Royal]

The vast majority of our players are home grown so it doesn't matter

[Royalwaster]

Anyone have any good tips and advice on how to grow my own players?

[Dare to Dr£am]

The vast majority of our players are home grown so it doesn't matter

Agreed, plus we will lose a lot of the fringe players like Baseya, Williams, Manset, Antonio (probably), Gunnarsson (shame) etc etc.

The numbers will come down, and there's a lot of academy products in our squad list.

[JimmytheJim]

Anyone have any good tips and advice on how to grow my own players?

When a man and a woman love each other very much...

[3 veesinarow]

These rules may influence who stays, who goes and who comes in. Although it's already been announced he's moving on, I believe these rules would have forced Gunnarsson out of the squad as he isn't under 21 and I don't believe he was homegrown (although I at be mistaken).

They wouldn't have forced Bryn out - at least 8 players have to be home-grown or under 21, not all 25. You can have 17 over-21 foreign players.

[Z175]

The "foreign" rule is unlikely to affect us - this team is a lot more Anglo/Welsh than the last one that went up.

Federici, Gorkks, Kebe, Hunt, Gunnarsson and Andersen are our only non home-grown players. (I'm unsure about Harte as he joined Leeds around 18 so could be either). The 25 man squad needs 8 home grown, so allows you 17 "foreigners". As we only have 6 already, we can easily sign an entire starting 11 of "foreign" players and meet the requirements.

The 25 player squad is perhaps the only issue, as we have gone for quantity with this side. It will certainly spell the end for fringe over 21 players at the club, so Howard, Williams, Morrison and Baseya will all be out. Griffin is probably the only one you wonder - if we sign a new full back, he won't make it. Sadly, this might apply to Bryjar too. Its a shame its not a 23 or under rule, as McCarthy, Robson-Kanu, Church, Andersen, Cummings, Karacan and Pearce are all 22/23. I'm not sure whether it is 21 at a certain date, but we certainly have a handful of promising players who can play if needed. With 7 subs, I'm sure one or two of them will make the bench on occasion.

That said there should be enough room to sign 7 new players. I doubt McDermott will make wholesale changes, but might try to bring in some quality. The rules shouldn't effect it.

1 Federici FOR
2 Harte ?
3 Gorkss FOR
4 Pearce
5 Cummings
6 McAnuff
7 Leigertwood
8 Karacan
9 Kebe FOR
10 Roberts
11 Hunt FOR
12 McCarthy
13 Connolly/New utility def
14 Robson-Kanu
15 Mullins
16 Antonio
17 Le Fondre
18 Church
19 Tabb
20 Andersen FOR
21 New LB/ J Mills
22 New CB
23 New RB
24 New CM
25 New Striker
26 Hector - U21
27 Taylor - U21 until Dec
28 Obita - U21
29 Afobe - Loan in (U21)
30 Walcott - U21
31 Jack Mills - U21
32 D'Ath - U21

Griffin - Loan / keep as back up for Jan
Howard - Sell
Cwyka ?
Morrison - Sell/loan
B Williams - Loan/sell
Sheppard - Loan
Baseya - Release!
Bignall - Release!
Gage - Loan FOR
Gunnarsson - Coaching staff? FOR

[Rex]

Anyone have any good tips and advice on how to grow my own players?

A great potting shed.
Talk to them when growing up.
Make sue the are not root bound and pot them on.
Keep the slugs and snails at bay.
Water them despite a hope pipe ban.

[Cypry]

We've got 50 in the squad as of today, of which only 18 will be under 21 as at 1st September.
Foreign players shouldn't be a problem, but numbers will be....

Full list of players 21 or over as follows:



1 Adam Federici Goalkeeper 27
2 Andy Griffin Defender 33
3 Matthew Connolly Defender 24
4 Jem Karacan Midfielder 23
5 Alex Pearce Defender 23
6 Brynjar Gunnarsson Midfielder 36
7 Jay Tabb Midfielder 28
8 Mikele Leigertwood Midfielder 29
9 Adam Le Fondre Striker 25
10 Noel Hunt Striker 28
11 Jobi McAnuff Midfielder 30
12 Alex McCarthy Goalkeeper 22
14 Jimmy Kebe Midfielder 28
15 Sean Morrison Defender 21
16 Joseph Mills Defender 22
17 Kaspars Gorkss Defender 30
18 Simon Church Striker 23
19 Hal Robson-Kanu Midfielder 23
20 Brian Howard Midfielder 29
21 Karl Sheppard Striker 21
22 Mathieu Manset Striker 23
23 Ian Harte Defender 35
24 Shaun Cummings Defender 23
26 Hayden Mullins Midfielder 33
27 Cedric Baseya Striker 24
28 Michail Antonio Midfielder 22
29 Nicholas Bignall Striker 22
31 Mikkel Andersen Goalkeeper 23
33 Jason Roberts Striker 34
34 Ethan Gage Midfielder 21
39 Brett Williams Striker 24
41 Tomasz Cywka Midfielder 24

Total 32 players...

We somehow need to reduce that list to 25 AND include space for incoming players, so realistically we'll need to lose 10 - 12 players from the above list...

Some are easy, Howard, Manset, Baseya etc, some make sense (regrettably) Bryn and Griffin for example, but positions 8 - 12 are significantly more tricky - some hard decisions will have to be made I think.
Andersen for example, will be 23, can we afford to have him take one of the 25 places when we have McCarthy as well, and a seeming never ending train of young goalkeepers coming through the ranks...

I expect to see something like the following as the core, with 3 or 4 incoming players, possibly lose Mills and Antonio as well, although I wonder if Brian might stick with them for the time being...


Adam Federici
Matthew Connolly
Jem Karacan
Alex Pearce
Jay Tabb
Mikele Leigertwood
Adam Le Fondre
Noel Hunt
Jobi McAnuff
Alex McCarthy
Jimmy Kebe
Joseph Mills
Kaspars Gorkss
Simon Church
Hal Robson-Kanu
Ian Harte
Shaun Cummings
Hayden Mullins
Michail Antonio
Mikkel Andersen
Jason Roberts

Certainly with a squad the size of ours the 25 player limit is the hardest nut to crack...

[Z175]

I don't think its too difficult. Irrespective of promotion, I would not be surprised to see the following 8 players move on, reducing us below the 25 in any case. We just have a lot of players this season due to two quick rebuilds in both transfer windows.

15 Sean Morrison Defender 21
20 Brian Howard Midfielder 29
21 Karl Sheppard Striker 21
22 Mathieu Manset Striker 23
27 Cedric Baseya Striker 24
29 Nicholas Bignall Striker 22
34 Ethan Gage Midfielder 21
39 Brett Williams Striker 24

The decision to replace the likes of Gunnarsson, Griffin, Mills and Cywka with 4 premier league class players is a decision that would be made in any case without the 25 man rule. No point keeping them around if they are moved even further down the pecking order.

Antonio's future will be decided by Brian's opinion and Antonios decision to play first team football. I doubt the 25 man list will bother us too much - if we sign Cristiano Ronaldo, why the hell would we keep Antonio, whether 25th man or 26th.

[melonhead]

id imagine the younger players will just be sent out on loan, so cant see us getting rid of shepherd morrison or gage
same could go for the rest, if theyre off the wage bill, and getting experince/gaining value, there is no reason why we should get shot

[Cypry]

id imagine the younger players will just be sent out on loan, so cant see us getting rid of shepherd morrison or gage
same could go for the rest, if theyre off the wage bill, and getting experince/gaining value, there is no reason why we should get shot

Players on loan are still in the 25 man squad though and cannot be replaced - read the rules above....

[NR_Royal]

id imagine the younger players will just be sent out on loan, so cant see us getting rid of shepherd morrison or gage
same could go for the rest, if theyre off the wage bill, and getting experince/gaining value, there is no reason why we should get shot

Players on loan are still in the 25 man squad though and cannot be replaced - read the rules above....

No they're not.

[Cypry]

id imagine the younger players will just be sent out on loan, so cant see us getting rid of shepherd morrison or gage
same could go for the rest, if theyre off the wage bill, and getting experince/gaining value, there is no reason why we should get shot

Players on loan are still in the 25 man squad though and cannot be replaced - read the rules above....

No they're not.

- Players loaned to Football League clubs cannot be replaced, but can regain their spot on return to parent club.

What does that mean then?

[Silver Fox]

Surely that only applies if they are part of the 25 man squad and then get loaned out

[melonhead]

which they wouldnt be.

players not in the 25, and loaned out couldnt play in the prem, but they wouldnt need to be sold

[Extended-Phenotype]

Doesn’t it mean if you have brought someone in on loan, and they are reclaimed, you can’t replace them?

I guess to give more advantage to the permanent playing staff.

[Snowball]

If Morrison and Sheppard move out before getting a chance they will have been unlucky.

Players like that, if they went out on full-season loans

(1) would be cover if we got relegated

(2) Might enhance their sell-on value in a season

BTW Do Scots and Irish count as home-grown?

[blueroyals]

Not sure what the fuss is all about. I doubt we've used many more than 25 players this season already. Just because a player is not in our 25-man squad does not mean they need to be sold or loaned out - they can continue to train with the first time, play reserve games, etc. Once they're good enough for the first team they can get called up during a transfer window.

But I agree we need to move a few players on (Howard etc).