25 man squad rule

[Yellow Wal 315]

One year on and the many, many flaws of the 25 man squad rule are plain to be seen.

One of the reasons for the new rules being brought in was to help encourage clubs to develop their own talent.

The rule has was brought in to prevent certain clubs stock-piling players. The decision was made by Premier League chairmen. This decision is an obvious reaction to clubs like Manchester City signing a huge amount of players.

English clubs are already raiding foreign clubs for their young players. The case of Chelsea signing young French star Gael Kakuta raised debate over Premier League clubs poaching young foreign players. This ruling has increased the amount of young players being poached at a younger age, in a bid to have them registered as ‘Home grown’. It has proved a massive own goal by the Premier League.

Any high class talent that becomes available is immediately snapped up by one of the top, or richest, clubs and lost to everyone else. That may be OK but the player he ultimately replaces also becomes lost to everybody else as well. The loan system allows this to happen. The development of good, young English talent is being seriously hampered when they sit in obscurity in a 25 man squad or are shipped out on loan. No continuity of coaching methods, training, fitness training of tactical awareness is offered them and their development suffers.

Surely a squad limitation where clubs are only allowed to register a certain number of players (say 30) over 21, to allow for injury, would be a fairer and more beneficial way of making a more level playing field. At the age of 21 a player would have to be included in the squad (and consequently another leave) or they would have to be allowed to furthr their careers elsewhere giving other clubs the opportunity of adding more quality to their squads.

At a time when the top clubs are becoming the playthings of the mega-rich something needs to be done to give all clubs the chance to suceed.