Posted July 18, 201113 yr First question -- I know the homegrown rule limits the number of non-homegrown guys who are 21 or older at 17. I haven't looked myself, but I've read that we already have 17 such players on the senior squad, and therefore would have to sell a non-homegrown player for every non-homegrown player we sign this summer. Can anyone confirm? Also, I know that to be considered homegrown, a player must spend at least 3 seasons prior to his 21st birthday with an English or Welsh club. But my question is, what if a player is signed early enough to qualify for that, but then loaned back out to a non-English/non-Welsh team? Say Chelsea signs a 17 year old kid, and then loans him to a French club for 3 years. He's technically Chelsea property for 3+ seasons prior to turning 21, but he wouldn't have trained and/or played with an English/Welsh team for 3 years. So.....homegrown or not?
July 18, 201113 yr To answer your first question 1 Petr Cech 2 Branislav Ivanovic 3 Ashley Cole 4 David Luiz 5 Michael Essien 7 Ramires 8 Frank Lampard 9 Fernando Torres 10 Yossi Benayoun 11 Didier Drogba 12 Mikel 15 Florent Malouda 17 Jose Bosingwa 18 Yury Zhirkov 19 Paulo Ferreira 21 Salomon Kalou 22 Ross Turnbull 23 Daniel Sturridge 26 John Terry 33 Alex 38 Patrick van Aanholt 39 Nicolas Anelka 40 Henrique Hilario 43 Jeffrey Bruma 44 Gael Kakuta 45 Fabio Borini 46 Josh McEachran You're right. We have a full quota of foreign players right now. As for the second.. err...I think it would be unfair of me to answer all the questions
July 18, 201113 yr Author To answer your first question You're right. We have a full quota of foreign players right now. A few guys have to go then. If AVB signs 3 players -- assuming none are homegrown -- then 3 guys have to be sold. Anelka and 2 out of Malouda/Kalou/Boss/Ferreira/Alex seem like the most likely candidates to me. Maybe AVB is trying to sell before he buys? Otherwise, if we go above 17, it's a giant flashing red light for other teams to low ball offers for guys like Anelka, since they'll know that we HAVE to sell, as opposed to simply wanting to sell. As for the second.. err...I think it would be unfair of me to answer all the questions LoL, I've asked this question multiple times on multiple boards and nobody seems to know.
July 18, 201113 yr I think the second question is a bit more unclear, but there is an answer: A home-grown player will be defined as 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 (or the end of the Season during which he turns 21). Now I think that in the example you're citing, that the player would be registered with a club not affiliated to the FA or WFA. Therefore they wouldn't qualify.
July 18, 201113 yr I think the second question is a bit more unclear, but there is an answer: Now I think that in the example you're citing, that the player would be registered with a club not affiliated to the FA or WFA. Therefore they wouldn't qualify. I think you're right. And I'll take Carlos Vela at Arsenal as an example. Joined in 2005 aged 16, so should easily qualify as homegrown except he was loaned out to Spain for 2 years and came back after his 18th birthday. Official site has him as a non-home grown. From our bunch, I think Matej DelaÄ and Slobodan Rajković would probably fall in the same category.
July 18, 201113 yr My understanding was that they count as homegrown even if they were loaned out of the country, but I could be wrong - I certainly can't explain why Vela wouldn't be homegrown.
July 18, 201113 yr A few guys have to go then. If AVB signs 3 players -- assuming none are homegrown -- then 3 guys have to be sold. Anelka and 2 out of Malouda/Kalou/Boss/Ferreira/Alex seem like the most likely candidates to me. Maybe AVB is trying to sell before he buys? Otherwise, if we go above 17, it's a giant flashing red light for other teams to low ball offers for guys like Anelka, since they'll know that we HAVE to sell, as opposed to simply wanting to sell. LoL, I've asked this question multiple times on multiple boards and nobody seems to know. A few guys have to go if we sign people who're over 21 - if we wanted to use Courtois as our backup keeper, instead of loaning him out, he wouldn't take up a slot. So Neymar and Lukaku, of our currently rumored targets, wouldn't force us to sell anyone for two years in Neymar's case, or at all in Lukaku's case (I think).
July 18, 201113 yr Author So, Gael Etock, who we just signed from Barca and is getting loaned back out to Sporting, likely won't count as homegrown....even though we bought him at age 17? Seems like that rule punishes teams for sending out their youngsters to gain experience.
July 19, 201113 yr So, Gael Etock, who we just signed from Barca and is getting loaned back out to Sporting, likely won't count as homegrown....even though we bought him at age 17? Seems like that rule punishes teams for sending out their youngsters to gain experience. The rule is supposed to encourage clubs to develop English players by making it more difficult to fill a squad with foreigners. The loan thing helps with that because (generally) English players have been registered to a club from about 14 and therefore wouldn't be harmed by being loaned abroad (because they'd easily get the required 3 years). I think the FA would like to stipulate a minimum quote of English players, but they know that the EU would never allow it.
