Aston Villa News 24/7I’ve covered the Premier League 25-man rules several times since it first cropped up so I won’t dwell on the details in this post. If you recall, last summer we named 22 players within our maximum of 25 players 21 years old or over on January 1st 2010 without any problems with the quota of “home grown” players. Including the academy players, we had no less than 36 additional players under the age of 21 also listed.
That stacked up favourably with the other teams in the league. As you can see, less than half the teams in the league named the full 25 and there wasn’t the mass exodus from Man City that many had assumed would have to occur:
Since then, we’ve lost John Carew, Curtis Davies, Brad Friedel, Isaiah Osbourne, Nigel Reo-Coker, Moustapha Salifou, Steve Sidwell and Ashley Young, leaving 14 of the original 22. But we’ve also added Darren Bent and Jean II Makoun since then, taking us back up to 16. Still plenty of scope to add new faces then?
Well, not so fast. Time waits for no man, everyone is a year older. I believe six of the younger players who weren’t required to be named within the 25-man squad last year now qualify. Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark, Fabian Delph, Chris Herd and Shane Lowry were all 21 years old on January 1st 2011 and must be named in September’s 25-man squad if they’re to be eligible to play for us in the Premier League before next year.
That takes us right back to 22 players then. Andy Marshall wasn’t in the original squad, but was added after he rejoined the club, I’m assuming he’ll be included again, we need three senior goalkeepers; 23 players. The third keeper, Shay Given or similar, is surely imminent; that will make 24. So, as things currently stand, we only really have room for one more senior outfield player.
Things will change though. Players such as Hogg, Herd and/or Lowry could be despatched on half or full-season loans. Other senior players, such as Emile Heskey and Habib Beye must be candidates for exits if there are interested buyers. Stewart Downing most certainly is, whether we like it or not.
So, there may not be a “sell to buy” policy per se, but it won’t be far from “one out, one in” just to be able to name our 2011/12 Premier League squad. Just to complicate matters when you’re creating your wish lists of new players to bring in.
Current squad 21+
These are the 23 players who would need to be included in the 25-man squad in order to play in the Premier League for us this season, younger players such as Nathan Delfouneso and Andreas Weimann do not have to be listed.
Goalkeepers
Guzan, Marshall
Defenders
Beye, Clark, Collins, Cuellar, Dunne, Lichaj, Lowry, Warnock, Young
Midfielders
Albrighton, Bannan, Delph, Downing, Herd, Hogg, Ireland, Makoun, Petrov
Forwards
Agbonlahor, Bent, Heskey
So, bring in a keeper and one other player and there will be no room for anyone else without sacrificing one of the above from Premier League eligibility. With the likes of Delfouneso and Wiemann plus Nathan Baker and Gary Gardner (both travelling to Columbia with England, along with Weimann with Austria, for the U20 World Cup later this month by the way) eligible as under 21′s, it wouldn’t be the end of the world I suppose, but we could definitely do with a reliably strong presence in the middle, if nothing else.
Scott Parker’s name has been cropping up a lot lately, hasn’t it?
You might also like...
16 Comments to “25-man squad rule: there’s less room left at the Aston Villa inn than you might think”
Leave a Reply
i had expected to miss a few of the youngsters turning over 21, but so many has suprised me. Very good read, and interesting article by the way. possibly the end for Hogg and Herd and a couple others, or more loan spells if their ego’s will take them. I think Lihaj and Hogg are the oldest, so would expect them to be more prone to leaving permanently.
Nice new slant to consider in the sell to buy debate.
it will be interesting to see how it develops. most, if not all, of the youngsters coming through have signed new deals in the last year or so which either means they’re very much part of the long term strategy or their sale value has been maximised. either way, it’s encouraging, it’s the right way to go.
that said, i’d be disappointed if we shipped out the academy grads to make space for new first team regulars and we end up with the likes of beye and heskey picking up 40 or 50k a week for warming the bench.
Great post Dan.. Infact I love the way you have been posting but I fail to understand the lesser number of comments for your articles!!
On our youngsters I dont think the contract is long enough for some of the players.. not sure of the exact number of years under their contract but guess their contract will end before they reach their prime.
Now what we should do is to play our youngsters properly and find out who all got the real fire in them and then give them a reasonable hike in the wages and put them to a contract which covers their best years in football and not end up with a young-downing situation all over again.
cheers. make or break this season for a few i think.
Great to come on hear and read an intelligent informative article, the tabloid type style of other villa blogs leave a lot to be desired, all headline and no content, if I see a certain Wigan wingers name again I may start believing he is quality.
Any way keep it up Dan, always informative and factual without a know it all air.
cheers, tubbydunne. what i do isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s ok, i’m not a fan of tabloid stuff myself. each to their own and all that.
just been on another villa site for the first time and the artical was just as good. well done and keep writing, interesting read!
thanks! erm, i think?
Got to get rid of Beye and let Lowry get a season on loan. Replacing with Hutton.
I really like Hogg and the energy of Herd. Personally, I would rather get rid of Stan (if that Turkish outfit is still interested) and bring in a decent first choice with Hogg and Herd as back up.
ahhaa shane lowry.. jonathan hogg and chris herd have absolutely no chnace of making the squad they aremnt good enough
hogg’s a lot better than people give him credit for. he’s capable of being a very decent squad player this season.
the two aussies have to be the weakest and most likely to make way one way or another for new faces if required.
Well thought out post as always. Some really good points there, i think we need to clear some of the fringe players and old weight. Get a couple of the younger players out on loan, and keep the likes of albrighton, bannan and clarke as first choice or rotation players. Sell downing, fill the gaps that are left. Wheelin and dealin
oh and give albie 6 when downing goes
Chris Herd is plenty good enough to make it, maybe with “fans” like we seem to have then he may have to leave AV to make his name but mark my words he will be another Cahill if we let him go.
Only player coming in is a keeper unless Downing leaves then a replacement for him will be signed. Mcleish will go with this squad using the youngsters to supplement the established players.
i would love to see Lichaj get some playing time this year, he improved tremendously in the gold cup for USA, and after seeing Bradley leave (makes sense coach wants to put his own spin on the team) I would really like to see a strong presence from one of our players. Lichaj has a lot of potential
and to add I think he could definitely learn a lot from a back line like ours