Arsene Wenger: Rebel without a cause?
Arsene Wenger has made it clear that he does not approve of the new squad rules put in place by the Premier League. The Arsenal manager has been critical of the move by the Premier League and said that the move could be disastrous for players and clubs alike.
The new rules take effect in the upcoming season which state that each club is supposed to declare a 25 man squad, of which 8 must be ‘home-grown’ players. Home-grown refers to players who have been trained at an English or Welsh club for at least three years under the age of 21. The rule also means that no more than 17 players in the squad can be over the age of 21 and not home-grown.
Arsene Wenger, who has overseen a very successful youth policy at Arsenal, criticized the rule of being dangerous to the players playing in the league at the moment because it essentially means a number of them will be without a club very soon. Due to the limit of 25 imposed on the squads, clubs with big squads will have to get rid of the extra players and a huge increase in the supply of available players could mean that a number of players do not manage to find clubs.
Wenger has also pointed out the additional cost of buying a player which comes in due to this law. The Frenchman, who has a degree in Economics, said that due to the limitation on the number of players within a squad, when judging the cost of purchasing a player the club will also have to keep in mind the cost of getting rid of another player to make space for the new acquisition.
The Arsenal manager also contested the belief that the rule will make the playing field more even because according to him the big clubs will still have the best 25 players and so it won’t really make a difference.
The rule has received a great amount of criticism but there are some critics who have also approved of it. This is due to the fact that the rule means a lot more young players will get a chance to play in the Premier League. And although there is no limit on foreign players, a British player will usually be eligible to be in the first team squad much sooner because foreign players are typically purchased when they are around 15 or 16 years old, which means that they are not eligible to play until 18 or 19.
Whereas a local player who starts with a club from the very beginning will be eligible as soon as he is 16 years old and this gives him a significant advantage over those who come in from outside in terms of first team opportunities.
It is difficult to say before the league starts whether the rule will be effective in achieving the goals for which it was created but since at this moment all Premier League clubs have the designated number of home-grown players, an all out failure appears very unlikely.
Arsenal are one of the clubs who have a very significant number of home grown players, with Chelsea having the fewest (8) and Aston Villa the most (24). It will be interesting to see how some of the clubs, such as Manchester City, cope with the problem of picking a 25 man squad when they have well over 30 players registered as part of their squad. If the rule leads to a more competitive league, it is safe to say that it would have achieved its objective.
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