When City return from the USA, an already exciting close season is set to find a dramatic edge. Roberto Mancini must now trim his squad and a sizeable player offload is on the cards…
Depending upon which hack you read or ‘in the know’ you have the ear of, City are poised to bring in Fernando ‘Santa’ Torres or ‘Super’ Mario Balotelli or James ’30 Mill’ Milner or all three of them inside the next few days.
Were those signatures to be made, The Citizens current first team squad would top the 40 mark.
Right now, with the acquisition of Aleksander Kolarov, City’s squad stands at 39 with the previous season’s raft of loan stars already back with us. That number must be reduced dramatically in the coming fortnight under the new Premier League ‘Home Grown Player’ rules and the likelihood is that we will see an unprecedented rotation of the SportCity entrance doors with a fleet of taxis arriving on Ashton New Road.
The rule change is sure to realise high profile omissions across the Premier League and some senior players may well find themselves sitting in the stands.
Outside of exceptional circumstances such as goalkeeper injuries, the ‘Home Grown Player’ rule can be best briefly explained as follows:
1. A Homegrown Player is defined as one who irrespective of his nationality or age has been registered with an English or Welsh club for a period of three years between his 16th and 21st Birthdays. 8 of these players must be named in a club’s squad of 25 players for the league season.
2. As a result, the season will be deemed as starting at the close of this summer’s transfer window until the last match of the campaign. Final Premier League 25 man squads must be registered by 5pm on 1st September and again at the end of January’s transfer window.
City’s squad has been under reconstruction for the best part of three years now and Roberto Mancini is close to completing the squad strengthening that he pinpointed as City completed the last season with a best ever Premier League finish.
So who’s in your 25 man City squad? YOU are the suave and dapper gaffer with some axe work to do. Debate has raged in the VMC Forums over who’s for the chop and with each new signing, the task becomes more difficult!
Below you will find City’s current first team squad. As agents, hacks and players desperately make calls in what is sure to be a coming fire sale – loaned out frenzy of activity around Eastlands, get your calculators out and tell us who you think will be in Mancio’s September Selection Box. Drop us a line here or in the VMC Forums with your 25.
Who’s On Mancio’s City Advent Calendar This Christmas?
Goalies
1. Given
2. Taylor
3. Hart
4. Gonzales
5. Nielsen – Tranmere Loan confirmed for 6 months
Defenders
6. Boateng
7. Vidal
8. Lescott
9. Boyata
10. Kolarov
11. Onuoha
12. Cunningham
13. Richards
14. Garrido
15. Bridge
16. Zabaleta
17. Logan
18. K. Toure
Midfielders
19. Ibrahim
20. A. Johnson
21. Silva
22. Barry
23. Vieira
24. Y. Toure
25. De Jong
26. Etuhu
27. Ireland
28. M. Johnson
29. Kompany
30. Weiss
31. Wright-Phillips
Forwards
32. Adebayor
33. Bellamy
34. Caicedo
35. Jo
36. Nimely
37. Robinho
38. Santa Cruz
39. Tevez
Imminent?
40. Torres
41. Balotelli
42.Milner
Premier League Chief Executive Peter Scudamore:
“As of next season clubs will be required to have a squad named of up to 25 players, of which no more than 17 can be over the age of 21 and not home grown. The definition of home grown is trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English and Welsh professional system.
“Clubs will have to declare their 25 at the end of August when the window shuts and then again at the end of January.”
“It’s not in the club’s interests to stockpile players. It will make buying home-grown talent more attractive. We’re not going down the route of a nationality test but what this will mean is that you just can’t buy a team from abroad.
“We think it will give clubs an extra incentive to invest in youth. We think that one of the benefits will be that it will help the England team.”
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