Football Update: English Premier League wakes with the anxiety of new 25-man squad regulation
With the announcement of new regulation, English Premier League has been struck by anxiety. EPL clubs, who clearly are dependent on foreign players, are wary that this rule could weaken their squad. The Premier League's new 25-man squad rule will be applicable from this start of this season. It will come into effect from September 1, 2010. Each of the 20 EPL clubs will have to name their 25-player squad, who will be eligible to play matches before the January transfer window.
According to this ruling, the squad will comprise of three goalkeepers, eight defenders, nine midfielders and five strikers. However, there are certain clauses of this rule which turned out to be a headache for Premiership managers. For instance, one such clause states, “Clubs will be able to supplement their squads with unlimited additional players under the age of 21 on January 1st in the year in which the season commences.”
This means that there is no need to include anyone born after January 1, 1989 in the list. With this clause, managers could play 35-40-player squad this season, mainly consisting of U-21s. Let’s take example of Manchester United. United has plethora of talent which is under-21. It includes likes of Chris Smalling, Ben Amos, Rafael, Fabio da Silva, Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Corry Evans and Joshua King. All of these players will be available to Sir Alex Ferguson in addition to his first choice 25. Now, take a look at probable 25-man squad, which Ferguson will select for the upcoming season.
It will include Edwin van der Sar, Tomasz Kuszczak, Gary Neville, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Nemanja Vidic, John O'Shea, Jonny Evans, Ritchie de Laet, Owen Hargreaves, Anderson, Ryan Giggs, Park Ji-Sung, Michael Carrick, Nani, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, Antonio Valencia, Darron Gibson, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez, Mame Biram Diouf. The only limitation for Ferguson is that he will need to make space in the squad before signing any new player.
However, there is another clause which is also very significant for Premiership. It states, “Clubs must include eight home-grown players out of a squad of 25.” According to this ruling, “A home-grown player means one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday.”
Even this clause will hardly affect the prevalent combination of most clubs. For Manchester United, following players, who are not even England-born, pass this clause. Players such as Giggs, Fletcher, Evans and O'Shea all are considered home-grown according to this rule. Same is the case with Arsenal, who has plenty of non-English but home grown players. Their list includes Cesc Fabregas, Nicklas Bendtner, Johan Djourou, Gael Clichy and Vito Mannone.
On the other hand, there are two clubs which will be directly affected by this ruling. Chelsea and Liverpool may find themselves in dilemma after the introduction of this regulation. In Chelsea's team, the home-grown group includes John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Ross Turnbull, Michael Mancienne and Scott Sinclair. They have made further space with the timely release of Ballack and Belletti. Now Chelsea has 17 foreign players in 25-man squad. If Chelsea is planning to buy any new foreign players, then they will have to release likes of Deco Nemanja Matic, who failed to establish themselves at Stamford Bridge.
The only loser at this stage is Manchester City. If City plans to bring any new players, then they will cut 8-9 players from their squad. The most eminent choices will be David Gonzalez, Kelvin Etuhu, Javier Garrido and Felipe Caicedo. This list may also include Robinho and Craig Bellamy. Apparently, it seems that over-hyped new ruling won’t affect the clubs in a way it was expected before.
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