Home Groan

By Aashish Siwan

In September 2009, English Premier League clubs agreed to a “home-grown” player rule. This new rule takes effect from the 2010-2011 season and means that any EPL team must have eight “home-grown” players in their squad of 25.

To qualify as “home-grown”, a player must have been registered in England or Wales for at least 3 years when they were between the ages of 16 to 21 (irrespective of their current age and their nationality), from what I understand of this rule.

What does this new rule mean for Arsenal FC?

Well, we already have a whole host of players who qualify and we will easily make this “home-grown” quota. If I have my data (from Arsenal.com) and calculations correct, the players that already qualify are as follows: 

Squad #. Name	DOB	Date joined AFC
4. Cesc Fabregas	4 May 1987	11 September 2003
11. Carlos Vela	1 March 1989	1 January 2008
14. Theo Walcott	16 March 1989	20 January 2006
15. Denilson	16 February 1988	31 August 2006
17. Alex Song	9 September 1987	12 August 2005
20. Johan Djourou	18 January 1987	1 August 2003
22. Gael Clichy	26 July 1985	4 August 2003
24. Vito Mannone	2 March 1988	1 July 2005
28. Kieran Gibbs	26 September 1989	10 September 2007
30. Armand Traore	8 October 1989	1 August 2006
52. Nicklas Bendtner	16 January 1988	1 August 2004

I have not included Aaron Ramsey in the above list as he is still in the early stages of his long road to recovery but the Welshman easily qualifies.

Listed above are at least six regular first team members (Fabregas, Walcott, Clichy, Denilson, Song and Bendtner). Others like Vela, Djourou and Gibbs have been in and out of the first team in the last year. Traore spent the last season out on loan to Portsmouth and prior to that has also had his chances to impress in the first team. Apart from his stellar 90 minutes away at Fulham last season, Mannone has the least first team experience of this group.

Wojciech Szczesny does also qualify as “home-grown”, but may yet be loaned out next season and Wilshere only misses out as he is just a few months short of his 19^th birthday (which will complete the required three year registration period).         

Taking eight from the 11 above group leaves us room for 17 other first team players (totalling the 25 allowed in the new rule) who can be included in the first team as players who are not “home-grown”. From the current squad, they are as follows:

Squad #. Name	DOB	Date joined
1. Manuel Almunia	19 May 1977	18 July 2004
2. Abou Diaby	11 May 1986	13 January 2006
3. Bacary Sagna	14 February 1983	12 July 2007
5. Thomas Vermaelen	14 November 1985	19 June 2009
6. Laurent Koscielny	10 September 1985	07 July 2010
7. Tomas Rosicky	4 October 1980	23 May 2006
8. Samir Nasri	26 June 1987	11 July 2008
10. Robin van Persie	6 August 1983	17 May 2004
21. Lukasz Fabianski	18 April 1985	26 May 2007
23. Andrey Arshavin	29 May 1981	3 February 2009
27. Emmanuel Eboue	4 June 1983	2 January 2005
29. Marouane Chamakh	January 10 1984	21 May 2010

A total of 23 Gunners are listed in the two groups above. This completes the list of 26 first team players listed on Arsenal.com (excluding Sol Campbell who has joined Newcastle of course). But wait, the new rules state that a squad can only have 25.

Keeping the above scenario in mind, Arsene Wenger’s recent comment on Arsenal.com, about there being “no room to move” in the squad, suddenly makes a lot of sense. He may be forced to let players go in order to bring reinforcements in.

The departures of Fran Merida (Atletico Madrid), Philippe Senderos (Fulham), Eduardo (Shakhtar Donetsk), Mikael Silvestre (released), Campbell (Newcastle) and William Gallas (free agent) would have given Wenger some leeway in terms of registering the 25 required first teamers. On the other hand, there are a number of young Gunners who were out on loan last season who might not be too happy to go out on loan again this season and would rather stake a claim for a spot in the first team. A fitting example being young Szczesny who spent half of last season out on loan to league one outfit Brentford where he put in a string of impressive performances . The confident Pole has made his intentions known but is willing to have a chat to Wenger to explore all his options. Other returning loanees might not be so open and may seek other clubs in search of regular football.

Wenger has concerns about the squad limit of 25 not being sufficient for Arsenal. Given the extensive injury list that the first team has had to cope with in recent seasons, he has a valid point there too. There is respite however. The squad of 25 can be supplemented with an unlimited number of under 21 year olds during the January transfer window. Here’s to hoping that the squad of 25 is sufficient and we have readymade and raring to go replacements in the group of supplement players should the need arise (touch wood, cross all my fingers, polishing up that lucky horse shoe and dusting out the lucky rabbit’s foot).

We should consider ourselves lucky that we have a manager in charge who envisaged this new rule and had been preparing a squad (most of whom have now been playing together regularly for at least a couple of seasons already) just for this new rule. Suddenly Wenger’s policy on young players, effort in building a youth academy and having a relatively young squad is paying dividends while other clubs release senior players (in the case of Chelsea and Joe Cole) to balance their senior squad with youngsters.   

Wenger will have done his sums on how to move this squad forward with the new rule in mind and where exactly any further new arrivals will fit in to balance the squad. The new “home-grown” rule must have featured heavily on Wenger’s mind during this years January transfer window and may explain why only Campbell was brought (back) in when we could have done with a couple more additions.

Only time will tell us who else (if any) is going to join Arsenal for the new season and what qualities they will bring to the squad, which other players (if any) will leave the Emirates and what effect the incoming and outgoing players will have on the squad. Wenger clearly has a few calls to make and a few manager-player one on one meetings to carry out, but trust the manager to have things under control.

I am glad I am not in Wenger’s seat.

Some FAQ’s

Question: Is there a registration deadline?

Answer: Registration deadline is 1^st of September 2010.

Question: What happens if a team cannot name eight home-grown players?

Answer: That team will have to name a smaller squad.

Question: Does this rule also apply to the F.A. Cup, UEFA Cup and the Champions League?

Answer: The rule only applies to Premier League fixtures.

Question: Why has the rule been brought in?

Answer: So clubs promote youth development rather than buy readymade stars.

Question: What happens if a club sustains a long term injury?

Answer: That club can choose from the group of supplement players but special dispensation will be given in exceptional circumstances. If a club were to lose all their goalkeepers to injury say for example.      

**Player DOB and the date they joined Arsenal are courtesy of Arsenal.com.