Premier League 2018/19

[Gazz]

Bosnich vs Viduka, winner gets the rights to the name 'Mark'.

[Colly]

/Marc

[Colly]

The Magpie Group Ashley protests have started well. After I saw literally 3 signs held up the other week, the planned protest outside Sports Direct head office on Saturday was called off at short notice leaving people out of pocket and milling around a car park. Now the head of the group is slating people who are planning on not boycotting the Wolves game. Lol. 

[Lineker]

Quote

The Football Association will seek to cut the number of foreign players permitted in Premier League squads, even if the United Kingdom does not leave the European Union.

The FA has drawn up proposals to deal with Brexit under which the allowance of non-homegrown players in the 25-man squads would be reduced from 17 to 13, and will pursue that course regardless.

The government asked the FA, Premier League and Football League to agree a joint policy on the approach to players arriving from overseas post-Brexit and has indicated it would adopt the governing body’s proposal once any split from the EU is complete.

The FA’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, has presented the plans to top-flight clubs although they appeared to fall at the first hurdle when rejected by Premier League chairmen at their meeting last week. However, the FA, which runs the current system with Home Office approval, believes it is in a position of power and its stance is not expected to shift.

Talks are ongoing with the clubs, who are anxious to avoid a “no deal” scenario in which EU players would have to fulfil the same criteria as non-EU footballers to gain work permits. If those rules were in place, 65% of the Premier League’s current European players would not have met the “governing body endorsement” (GBE) threshold to be able to represent an English club.

Five clubs, including Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, have the maximum 17 overseas players, while four more teams, including Chelsea and Liverpool, have 16.

The FA has argued that the proposals would not prompt a net fall in the number of imported players, given there are about 260 overseas players in the Premier League, equating to an average of 13 per club. It argued that if sides had been limited to playing their most-used 13 non-homegrown players last season, only 42 of 10,469 appearances would have been impacted.

The governing body has tried to convince the clubs to sign up by offering to relax GBE criteria and create a fully open market. That would allow Premier League clubs to secure elite talent from South America, Africa and Asia as easily as they currently access European players.

It believes this would focus minds on purchasing talent ready for the first team and maintain the league’s global popularity, while also potentially boosting the number of English players in line for first-team football. Only 62 of 220 starters in the top flight were eligible for Gareth Southgate’s England side this month, with that figure generally hovering around the 30% mark.

Any plans would not come into force before 2021, unless the government drops Brexit plans, and would probably be followed by a review of the loan system to prevent the stockpiling of players. But the FA, regardless of the outcome of the government’s negotiations with the EU, is committed to increasing the homegrown quota to boost the proportion of English players in the elite division. It is comfortable with the Football League’s arrangements, where seven of a club’s 18-man match-day squad must be homegrown, including at least one who has been developed in the team’s youth system.

A homegrown player in Premier League terms is one registered with a club affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for three seasons or 36 months before his 21st birthday.

[FLiam]

Well that will certainly increase some clubs interest in a European Super League. 

[Adam]

I'm all for it. There is not enough done by clubs to make sure young English players get the chance to develop and come through at clubs, especially the top clubs. This will aid that, and it's not exactly a hardship. This doesn't stop clubs signing the Agueros, Pogbas and Hazards of the world, it makes them think about bringing through British talent instead of signing cheap foreigners who aren't really any better. Squad players or non-entities like Klavan, Sorloth, Martina etc.

[Colly]

They'll just expand what they do already in terms of signing talented foreign 18 year olds. It's not just the big clubs either, Tim Krul is home grown. 

[stokeriño]

Demand in the unremarkable-but-English backup goalkeepers market (otherwise known as the Ross Turnbull market) is going to sky-rocket.

[Colly]

I still love the fact Turnbull turned his shirt round when you lot won something or other (Champions League mebbe?) so that people would actually know he wasn't just a pitch invader. 

[stokeriño]

Yeah that was the CL win.

[The Lusophone]

9 hours ago, Adam es Tranquilo said:

I'm all for it. There is not enough done by clubs to make sure young English players get the chance to develop and come through at clubs, especially the top clubs. This will aid that, and it's not exactly a hardship. This doesn't stop clubs signing the Agueros, Pogbas and Hazards of the world, it makes them think about bringing through British talent instead of signing cheap foreigners who aren't really any better. Squad players or non-entities like Klavan, Sorloth, Martina etc.

Eric Dier doesn't count as homegrown. Jadon Sancho, if he returns to a Prem club in anything but the next 2 transfer windows, wouldn't count as homegrown. There's some clear issues with the proposed regulations.

[Colly]

Basically it needs to change from home grown to English, but it'll never happen. I don't even know if employment law allows it... 

[stokeriño]

As a means to incentivise clubs' investment in developing players, its current form is fairly appropriate. It says to English clubs if they invest in a player's teenage years - as opposed to just not bothering and waiting to sign fuller-formed players - then they will have a more valuable/flexible squad option at the end of it. It would therefore make sense that Eric Dier is not valued in that way since it was in Portugal, not England, that he spent his formative years.

Obviously this conflicts with the other idea of promoting homegrown players: promoting talent that could be part of the English national team. They could extend the HG criteria to be both its current form AND/OR players of certain nationalities, but as implied it might be legally tricky because you are effectively discriminating on the basis of birth.

[Adam]

56 minutes ago, MexicoJack said:

Eric Dier doesn't count as homegrown. Jadon Sancho, if he returns to a Prem club in anything but the next 2 transfer windows, wouldn't count as homegrown. There's some clear issues with the proposed regulations.

Dier I think isn't relevant as he was in Portugal due to familial career reasons, not to further his footballing ambitions, but Sancho - you could say that if City had more incentive to bring British players through from U16s and up, Sancho might have gotten a chance at City instead of feeling it'd be better to go abroad instead.

Maybe this idea isn't the answer but it might be a step in the right direction at least.

[Szumi]

The England International Transfer Fee Tax is going to jump up even more astronomically now. 

[FLiam]

2 hours ago, It's Pronounced Zoom-E said:

The England International Transfer Fee Tax is going to jump up even more astronomically now. 

Yeah, players like Andy Carroll are going to cost about £35m!

[Lineker]

Quote

Unai Emery believes Arsenal were in decline towards the end of Arsène Wenger’s 22-year reign and “had to change things”.

The club failed to finish in the top four for the first time under Wenger in his final two campaigns, a situation Emery believes was down to losing the “defensive structure”.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper Marca, Arsenal’s head coach said: “I met once with him, and little else. I respect him a lot but no matter how much info he gave me, I had to change things. I told the players: ‘We started at kilometre zero.’ Even now, four months later, I still say it: ‘We are in the beginning!’”

Emery feels Arsenal lost sight of a key aspect during Wenger’s closing seasons. “Before Wenger arrived, Arsenal celebrated the 1-0 [win] and was based on defensive solidity. Then with Arsène, joy was turned into attack, with players of good standing, and the perfect combination was the Invincibles,” he said in reference to the club winning the Premier League unbeaten in 2004.

“But over time, only technical quality and offensive freedom were taken care of, and the team lost the defensive structure. What I want is to unite both essences and be more competitive. The Arsenal was in decline. We had to stop it and start climbing.”

Arsenal go to Bournemouth on Sunday unbeaten in 16 matches in all competitions. “The Premier League is our priority, and our objective in terms of the table is to finish in the top four,” Emery told Arsenal’s website.

“The club wants to return to Europe’s top club competition, which is the Champions League, and we have two opportunities by which to do that – one is the Premier League and the other is the Europa League.”

[Szumi]

Sadio Mane signed a new long term contract with Liverpool today 👍

[Twist]

The solution is easy. If your opportunities in England are limited, go and play abroad.

[Colly]

11 hours ago, Twist said:

The solution is easy. If your opportunities in England are limited, go and play abroad.

Brexit means Brexit.