19 Sep 2020 15:25:42
Afternoon Ed’s, I was wondering if you could shed some light on a what a home grown player? And How many HG players are needed for a team to reach the HG quota? Do Welsh players who’ve played in England youth systems count? (Woodburn, Wilson, Neco) . Is their a fine for not reaching the quota? I think it’s quite an overlooked subject when transfers are discussed. Thanks for your work on this Site also, great 👍🏻.

{Ed002's Note - There are two things to consider and not to confuse:
(1) Home Grown: The EPL squad rules are a max of 25 players 21 and over, of which a max of 17 can be non-Home Grown. The remaining eight have to be HG (spending 3 years between 16 and 21 with an English or Welsh side, regardless of nationality, e.g. Nathan Ake is Home Grown for the EPL). If there are not enough HG players, then the squad size reduces, so if there are only six, the squad reduces to 23. In terms of UEFA competitions, the rules vary slightly with the eight "HG". A maximum of four of those eight can be trained by other clubs in the English and Welsh association. The remaining have to be club developed and trained. So If Arsenal were to recruit Mason Mount, he would fall in to the category of being association trained (by Chelsea) rather than club trained. Again, if there are not sufficient club trained players the squad size is reduced for European Competition. So for Liverpool, Caoimhin Kelleher, Harry Wilson and Trent Alexander-Arnold are the three that meet this criteria so the squad size in Europe will be 24 rather than 25 (or 23 if Wilson is sold).

(2) Club developed: In terms of "club developed and trained" means that they have spent at least 12 months with the club before the year of their 19th birthday. As such Ryan Sessegnon is not club developed by Spurs nor Joe Gomez by Liverpool.}

19 Sep 2020 17:18:04
Thank you ed02 that was helpful.

19 Sep 2020 18:27:51
Ed002 fantastic reply, thank you for taking the time. How much of an issue is this for Liverpool currently?

{Ed002's Note - Well, with Awoniyi leaving today the situation is that the Champions League squad can only be 24 senior players this season and the club has two more Non HG than is allowed - so two need to be loaned out or sold. If Harry Wilson is sold the Champions League squad will reduce to 23 senior players.

Non HG (19)
Adrian
Alisson
Andrew Robertson
Diogo Jota
Divock Origi
Fabinho
Georginio Wijnaldum
Joel Matip
Karius
Konstantinos Tsimikas
Marko Grujic
Mohamed Salah
Nobby Keïta
Roberto Firmino
Sadio Mane
Takumi Minamino
Thiago
Virgil van Dijk
Xherdan Shaqiri

HG (7)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
James Milner
Joe Gomez
Jordan Henderson

HG and Club Developed (3)
Caoimhin Kelleher
Harry Wilson
Trent Alexander-Arnold.}

19 Sep 2020 20:44:32
Thanks Ed002. I'd imagine we will need to sell Karius and Grujic because of squad size and Shaqiri because of funds and game time.

20 Sep 2020 06:31:30
VDB, Elliot, Jones, neco, Brewster will all be eligible as HG when they turn 21 so that's a positive for the upcoming seasons and along with Trent and Gomez we shouldn't be needing to bring players in just to balance the squad. I'm sure karius and a couple from the likes of origi Shaqiri and grujic will either be sold or loaned because we won't want to have too many wasting the 17 spots of non HG we're allowed. I wonder do clubs get affected much in having to keep players who are only useful in quotas. United seem to be content with the likes of Jones or lingaard in their squad for years as an example.