OK i'm interested to see what everyone thinks of the new rules for the forthcoming season.

 

- Clubs register a squad of up to 25 players, which must include at least eight 'home-grown' players, at the end of each transfer window.

 

- Home-grown players do not have to be English; home-grown players are defined as those who "irrespective of nationality or age, have been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to 21st birthday"

 

- Clubs can supplement squad with unlimited number of players under the age of 21.

 

- Changes can be made only during transfer windows, although in exceptional circumstances (eg goalkeeping injury crisis) moves could be allowed.

 

- Players loaned to Football League clubs cannot be replaced, but can regain their spot on return to parent club.

 

- Rules apply only to Premier League matches, not European, FA Cup or League Cup action.

 

I guess the idea is to increase the options of players for England. I think in due course this will work really well, but at the moment it's just casing a bit of a panic. As it is clubs are already buying players for over the odds because they're English, and this rule is only going to make things so much worse.

Long-term I don't think it will make much of a difference.

 

1. You only need less than a third of your squad to meet the rules, that can't be that hard to build.

 

2. I can't see it helping English player, it'll just mean more EU nationals are bought in before they're 18. The only way it will help the national team is if it becomes a worldwide or at least EU wide rule so all of these talented youngsters are needed at their own clubs, which will drive the price up for unproven foreign youngsters. I know some leagues have some kind of similar rules but not too many.

I suppose this should hopefully help the competitiveness of the league. Man City have a 37 man squad for example :lol: And to trim it they're planning to get rid of players like Ireland and Bellamy and just keep their 'big names'. :blink:

Won't mean anything really, as far as I can tell no-one needs to buy any English players this summer to fit the criteria. Arsenal for instance have Bendtner, Clichy, Fabregas, Denilson, Song, Djourou and more that all count as homegrown.

Similar thing in Spain, about time it came here.