Meeting the new homegrown, foreign quotas

"Homegrown" is: over 21 at the start of the calendar year, registered with an English or Welsh club for at least three years prior to turning 21. Minimum of eight.

Currently Qualified:

Campbell, Senderos, Clichy, Gilbert, Fabregas, Djourou, Song, Simpson, Bendtner, Mannone, Denilson

"Foreign" is non-English or Welsh players over 21. Maximum of 17.

Currently Qualified:

Almunia, Gallas, Silvestre, Rosicky, Arshavin, Sagna, Eboue, Eduardo, van Persie, Fabianski, Vermaelen, Diaby, Nasri

First team players under-21:

Walcott, Gibbs, Merida, Wilshire, Ramsey, Randall, etc..

The total number of players for a roster is 25.

To meet the requirements we must keep eight of our "homegrown" players. Clichy, Fabregas, Djourou, Song, and Bendtner look safe. Gilbert and Simpson probably won't feature on the first team. Campbell will probably re-sign. Mannone will likely be kept. Denilson may or may not return (likely he will). So no problems there unless we decide to move Mannone or Denilson off the first team.

The issue is keeping the first team roster lean. 25 players sounds like plenty but really it isn't. It amounts to:

3 keepers, 8 defenders, 9 midfielders, 5 forwards.

Keepers will likely be: new man, Almunia/Fabianski, and Mannone/Szczesny.

Defenders: Vermaelen, Clichy, Sanga, Djourou, Gibbs, Campbell, Traore, and whoever we replace Gallas with. I expect Senderos, Silvestre, and Gallas to move on. Campbell will probably stay on another season.

Midfielders: Fabregas, Ramsey, Song, Nasri, Diaby, Rosicky, Denilson, Eboue, Merida. Expect Wilshire to spend another season with Bolton. Merida may move to Spain if a contract can't be sorted, creating space for someone from the reserve squad such as Eastmond or Randall.

Forwards: Van Persie, Arshavin, Walcott, Chamakh, and Bendtner. Eduardo, Vela, and others may be sold or could spend time off the first team roster until injuries occur.

So as you can see there isn't a lot of room to add new players unless we start subtracting existing ones.

I fully expect Almunia and/or Fabianski to be replaced this summer. Almunia could be kept on to play back-up to our new number one. So could Fabanski.

With each passing day it seems more and more likely we'll part was with Gallas, who looks set to join Paris Saint-Germain. We will be forced to sign a new central defender to replace him, whoever that may be.

I think it is extremely unlikely we add another midfield player to the first team. We are bloated already. Not only do we have one or two too many first team midfield players we have a cache of young men trying to get in there as well. I don't put much stock in rumours about Yaya Toure, etc..

Finally with Chamakh coming into the first team Eduardo and Vela are likely going to be displaced. I expect Eduardo may be sold this summer. Vela could be back on the reserves or just waiting for injuries to open a place for him. There currently is no room for our young players up front.