I’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?