The Inevitable Summer Transfer Market Topic

[EddieG]

I reckon welsh teams should just have 6 Welsh.

However if you're doing it by the book, Welsh teams should have English players 'cause they're competing in an English league... or they should just piss off back to the Welsh leagues.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

What league do Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff play in if they fall out of the league system? Would they drop down through the lower English non-leagues or would they return to the Welsh leagues?

[Bigal]

I'd imagine lower English.

[METALMAN]

There's a couple of Welsh teams in the lower English leagues. Merthyr Tydfil for example.

[Adam]

What league do Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff play in if they fall out of the league system? Would they drop down through the lower English non-leagues or would they return to the Welsh leagues?

It's lower english, as Wrexham were relegated from the league last year and are now in the Conference. I think Merthyr Tydfil have gone bust, but Colwyn Bay (I think its them) play in the Unibond League (or its equivalent) and they're Welsh.

Isn't this 6+5 rule to the effect of foreign youngsters also being eligible though? Like, Macheda, all these Arsenal youngsters, players like that, foreign born but trained in england?

[9 to 5]

0950 BST: Chelsea have signed Russian international midfielder Yuri Zhirkov for $30m from CSKA Moscow according to Russian newspaper Tvoi Den. The tabloid claims Zhirkov will join on a four-year contract. (Russian tabloid Tvoi Den)

"Yuri has signed the contract with Chelsea just a day or two ago," the newspaper quoted Zhirkov's agent as saying. "He will join his new team this summer."

bbc.co.uk

EDIT - I think the whole 6+5 thing means the 'home-grown' players have to had been trained by an English club for 3 years before a certain age. I can't remember what, 18 or 21 iirc.

Edited May 29, 2009 by 9 to 5

[METALMAN]

Zhirkov is awesome in FM 2009. So he must be good in real life too. >_>

[stokeriño]

(Edit: Booo I'm too slow... )

Chelsea apparently HAVE signed Yuri Zhirkov, according to some Russian tabloid. Not "are going to"; HAVE.

Taking that with a pinch of salt, of course, because fuck knows that you'd be hard-pressed to find a country whose tabloids are eevn less credible than those of Spain, Italy, etc...oh wait, Russia. Yeah.

But on the other hand, it has been said before that Hiddink was going to be reccomending players for them before he left - and it's not like Abramovich is going to be vetoing Russian players...

We'll see if it ends up being true or not. If it is, that's one of my three Definite Requirements filled at least.

Edited May 29, 2009 by stokeriño

[Adam]

Who's done that deal then, if Chelsea don't even have a permanent manager? I can't see Hiddink bringing someone in when he's leaving at the end of the week.

[METALMAN]

As if a manager (or the lack of) has ever stopped Roman Abramovich before.

[stokeriño]

If it did happen, it'd presumably be a case of Abramovich making the personal advances, while Kenyon sorts out the grunt work.

[Matt]

RE: The 6+5 rule, they have to be elligible to play for the national team of the club. So I assume that means English rather than British, the Welsh clubs will probably get an exception (they'll be able to count English and Welsh) since it's not really feasible for them to play 6 Welsh players.

[The Future]

Zhirkhov was great at the Euros and is awesome in FM, fast player..good skill and always getting forward.

[cmb211087]

Apparantly we are after Mathias Fernandez. Now he is a god on football manager, but in real life he has not been doing too well recently. But I still think he would be an awesome signing.

[Scott McFly]

I think Matt has a point, it does say "the national team of the country of the club". So for Spurs, that would be England and therefore Hutton, for example, wouldn't count because he's Scottish and Spurs are governed by the English FA. Not sure whose jurisdiction the Welsh clubs come under, but although geographically they're in Wales I'd say since they're in the English leagues they should be classed as having to field English players. Berwick Rangers are another one, since they're in England but play in the Scottish leagues.

The whole "Eligible to play for" thing is a bit vague though. I believe Arteta will be eligible for England soon since he's been with Everton for nearly 5 years (I think that's the time length anyway), so then he'll come under the "6" part since he'll be eligible for England. But then say he gets called up by Spain and gets a cap, then although he was previously eligible for England, he'll now only be eligible for Spain, so does that then re-exclude him from being part of the "6" or not?

[Crybaby Bunting]

I can see the FA backing down on this issue closer to the actual time once a few clubs have players called up to their "true" countries out of nowhere rendering them un-english.

[stokeriño]

I have to wonder what happens if unlucky clubs get a run of injuries to their English players (like if Joe Cole got injured for Chelsea AGAIN...and Ashley Cole were injured, and maybe John Terry were suspended...etc.). Would they actually say "No, you've got to play a couple of 17 year olds. Essien and Ivanovic will have to be on the bench"? :/

[Adam]

I don't really like the idea of the 6+5, I mean surely you would want to be able to just pick your best 11 as a manager? It's not gonna affect my team anytime soon mind, but I just think there could be other ways to try and expand on domestic homegrown player use over foreigners.

[Matt]

I love the 6+5 rule, the sooner more English players start being used the better. And as for the injury problems, I think the idea is that you have a squad with lots of English players, not just 6 English players, I imagine a substansial fine or points deduction for repeat offences will be the penalty for not fielding enough English players.

[IAceI]

Might help spread out the better foreign players as well, even though there'll be enough room for a few in a team (and the homegrown/training rule) but they may not all end up at the same club so we'll get a little bit more diversity.

The obvious solution is to reincorporate the Republic into the UK. Get invading, Gordon >_>

Anyway, by rights it should probably be English players rather than British, with an exception for the Welsh teams. If we're going to have four national teams, it seems only fair.

Kinda like how I cheer when specific countries enter the EU and stuff, helps with work permit regulations