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New EPL Squad Rules Mean a Lot of Talented Reserve Squads

Published by Ian John on July 27, 2010

With only a few weeks left to the new season and the final touches being applied to most teams in the transfer market over the next few weeks, it looks like being a very busy time for teams as they seek to finalise their squads ahead of the start of the 2010-2011 season and there may be a lot more pressure on certain managers and players than normal as we head towards the beginning of August.

As of this season, each Premier League team must announce a squad of 25 players, of which 8 of the players must be ‘home grown’, and 17 of whom can only be aged over 21 and not from the UK. The definition of home grown being a player who is aged under 21 and who has spent three years or more being coached by somebody in the English or Welsh professional system, which means for example players like Cesc Fabregas for example, would be considered a home grown talent.

For most Premier League clubs, this new ruling will make little difference. Teams like Stoke City, Bolton Wanderers and Wolves operated a relatively small sized squad anyway and always had several young and home grown players promoted from the youth ranks to bolster the first team squad. However there may well be several big named stars who are no longer going to be eligible to play a Premier League game for many months.

Take the situation at Tottenham Hotspurs. Harry Redknapp has been unusually quiet in the transfer market so far this pre-season and perhaps this new rule will explain that. Currently Redknapp has to choose a Premier League squad of 25 from around 30 players who have a realistic chance of first team football next season. That doesn’t include any new signings that Redknapp may well make. Now certainly Redknapp can omit several young players from that squad, but that won’t help him meet the quota of players aged 21 or under. Nor will leaving out players who came through the youth system and qualify as home grown. As such Redknapp faces a problem.

Tottenham fans are already facing up to the fact that one, or more, of several big names may well not even make the 25 man squad for the first part of the season. Jonathan Woodgate, reportedly earning around £100,000 a week, and Giovanni Dos Santos, who is believed to be earning around half that, are believed to be on the verge of missing out. Bear in mind that a few years back, both of these players were playing regularly in the first teams for Real Madrid and Barcelona.

It isn’t only Spurs who are facing this problem. Injury plagued Owen Hargreaves at Manchester United may well miss out. Manchester City face some tough decisions as to what to do with players like Steven Ireland, who has fallen out with Roberto Mancini, and Jo, who seems to have no future at Eastlands. These are players on huge contracts who may not get into Mancini’s final 25 man squad.

So the next few weeks will be very interesting and not just for which players managers buy, but for which ones they sell and perhaps most importantly, which ones they don’t. There looks like being a high number of very talented and expensive players who will spend the first few months of the 2010-2011 season training and playing reserve team football, or hoping for a loan move elsewhere.

Is that good for football? I’m not so sure. It isn’t the rule I disagree with, but the way the richer clubs have been allowed to effectively hoarde players for themselves. Hopefully this rule will go some way towards ending this disparity and give players, including talented younger players, the chance to make the breakthrough at Premier League level.

Image Courtesy of ***Speaking Teen*** on Flickr.com

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