By Tony Attwood
We are getting close to the stage where Premier League clubs have to prepare their official list of players they are registering for the forthcoming season. The rules haven’t changed this year, so Arsenal have to register no more than 25 senior players.
But at times like this, confusion can reign over home-grown players, for although some fans still like to think “Homegrown” means “English” or maybe at a pinch “British” that is not the case. In fact, homegrown has nothing to do primarily with nationality or age. It is judged by affiliation or “registration”.
Players who have affiliated with any English or Welsh club for a period of three entire seasons or 36 months before their 21st birthday are considered “home grown” no matter where he or she was born, where the player lived, the nationality of the player’s parents, or what team, if any, the player has played for.
Our example is Madueke, who was an academy player at Crystal Palace and Tottenham but then moved to Eindhoven, aged 16 in June 2018. He joined Chelsea two months before his 21st birthday. But because he was an academy player at Crystal Palace and Tottenham before he went to Eindhoven, he is “homegrown” in terms of English clubs.
One important point to note, however, is that these rules are not the same as Uefa’s rules
As you will know, PL clubs submit a list of up to 25 senior (over 21-year-old) players. And the PL publish the list a few days later. No more than 17 players are allowed who are not classed as a ‘homegrown player’. And because under-21s are not counted in the “25” list of players, clubs can have as many of those as they like For the 2025-26 season, any player born on or after 1 January 2005 is an under-21 player.
Now we noticed last season that many PL clubs did not register the maximum 25 players and often registered between 21 and 23 players, so for a lot of clubs these rules don’t give them a dilemma of which player to pick. Indeed, by keeping one or two places clear, they can bring in an emergency player or two in the January window to cover for a serious injury in one of the squad players registered in August.
At the moment Arsenal have 35 players listed – without taking into account ages or Englishness. Obviously Arsenal would like to buy one or two more players but because other clubs know perfectly well about Arsenal’s injuries, they are all putting up the price of any player who could fit either position, because of Arsenal’s perceived “desperation”.
And indeed it would be hard going to start the season without either of those two players. But then if Arsenal buy a top player in either position, the club then has the problem of having two top players for a position for the rest of the season, and one of them is going to get rather fed up not playing every week.
As I see the squad list at the moment without checking anyone bought overnight, we have
- Four goalkeepers
- 10 defenders
- 11 midfield
- 10 attackers
But as noted the major concern at the moment is cover for William Saliba and Jurriën Timber who both have long-term injuries. Arteta called both of these players’ problems “massive losses”. Arsenal may make a purchase or two as cover, but no indication has been given of this yet.
The media is, of course, packed with daily stories of the players that Arsenal will be buying – generally with no regard to getting cover for those injured players, and most transfer windows end with none of the highly speculative purchases actually coming to fruition.
And of course a high-quality player is not going to want to sign for Arsenal and move to London only to find that after a few months he is dropped as the player has regained fitness and takes his place back. Players look for multiple things when they move club – and although no manager will ever give a player absolute assurances about how high up the order that player is, players and their agents will make a judgement.
So it could well be that Arsenal will not buy a permanent replacement for either of the injured players and try and get through the situation using existing players or just possibly someone who knows he is in the position for a short while only, until the mainstay in that position returns. Not a particularly ideal situation.
