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Opinion

Home Grown rule now to have major influence on Newcastle summer transfers even if Rafa stays

5 years ago
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After each transfer window up to 25 senior Newcastle United players can be named in their official Premier League squad.

These are then the only players(***) allowed to play in the Premier League, until the next transfer window comes along. So twice a season, at the end of each summer and January window,

(***Under-21 players are eligible over and above the limit of 25 players per squad. For the 2019/20 campaign Under-21 players will have been born on or after 1 January 1998.)

Each Premier League club has to submit a squad list containing no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the “Home Grown Player” (HGP) criteria. The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be Home Grown.

An HGP means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).

When the latest (current) Newcastle United PL squad (see below) was announced on 2 February 2019, after the January window closed, they had the bare minimum who meet the home grown quota, with only eight of the 25 (actually only 24 named in total) named being HGP.

The eight home grown currently in the squad, are:

Ciaran Clark, Karl Darlow, Paul Dummett, Rob Elliot, Isaac Hayden, Jamaal Lascelles, Matt Ritchie, Jonjo Shelvey

With eight places kept for only home grown players and a maximum of 17 non-home grown, you can see why it could have a major influence on Newcastle’s summer transfer plans.

Only Dummett, Hayden, Lascelles and Ritchie have been first team regulars this season and as we all know, Hayden is almost sure to leave this summer due to family reasons. You can also see why this is another reason to doubt claims of Newcastle supposedly happy to sell Matt Ritchie.

Rafa Benitez said earlier in the season that Rob Elliot has no future at Newcastle and needs to find a new club, whilst Shelvey looks very likely to leave as well, Clark’s time also looks up, plus no surprise if Darlow was moved on as well.

This would likely leave Dummett, Lascelles and Ritchie filling three spots for home grown players, whilst the new season will see both Sean Longstaff and Freddie Woodman join them, as they going to be no longer classed as Under 21s.

As well as Newcastle seemingly set to target young players from this country, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Dwight Gayle still at Newcastle and back in the squad next season, with part of the attraction being that he doesn’t take up one of the 17 places for non-home grown players.

Jacob Murphy hasn’t shown anything to suggest he can handle the Premier League, with the likes of Jamie Sterry, Callum Roberts and Rolando Aarons not having a future at St James Park.

When it comes to non-home grown players it is even harder for them to be kept on as squad fillers.

Antonio Barreca will be sent back this summer, whilst overseas players who NUFC have loaned out, such as Achraf Lazaar and Henri Saivet, have no chance of being included next season.

However, if Rafa Benitez did leave, I don’t think it would be out of the question for Jack Colback to see out the final year of his contract as a squad player at NUFC.

Kenedy will obviously be returned to Chelsea and not being home grown is surely a key reason in making it all but definite there will be no attempt to keep Mohamed Diame at the club.

There has been outside pressure from the FA in trying to get the Premier League to lower the number of non-home grown players in squads, to try and ensure more English players get into PL squads, but this has so far been resisted.

However, that pressure will continue to be exerted and it is also surely part of the thinking when Rafa Benitez has been actively recruiting young players for the Academy and reserves. The likes of Elias Sorensen will meet the criteria of being ‘home grown’ if he is still at Newcastle United when in a couple of years time his age means he is a senior player and not an Under 21.

The current Newcastle United senior squad players (*=Home grown)

Almiron Rejala, Miguel Angel

Barreca Antonio

Clark, Ciaran*

Darlow, Karl*

Diame, Mohamed

Dubravka, Martin

Dummett, Paul*

Elliot, Robert*

Fernandez, Federico

Gutierrez, Ayoze Perez

Hayden, Isaac Scot*

Ki, Sung Yueng

Lascelles, Jamaal*

Lejeune, Florian Gregoire Claude

Manquillo Gaitan, Javier

Mato Sanmartin, Jose Luis

Muto, Yoshinori

Nunes Nascimento, Robert Kenedy

Ritchie, Matthew Thomas*

Rondon, Jose Solomon

Schar, Fabian Lukas

Shelvey, Jonjo*

Twasam, Christian Atsu

Yedlin, Deandre

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