No point dreaming of signings, Roy’s got some selling to do

Asked during his press conference on Friday afternoon, Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson had this to say about potential new signings:

“The bulk of the work has been done. The major changes will be players needing to leave because of the new 25-man rule. We’ve got too many players who, if they don’t make the 17 foreign-man allowance, are not going to want to play in the reserve team for the rest of the season.”

Although many Liverpool fans will be disappointed with such news, Roy is right to highlight the problem the Reds now face with the home-grown quota system. The definition of what the Premier League defines as “home-grown” is thus:

“A home-grown player will be defined as one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the Season during which he turns 21).”

There are many in the squad that can be included as both under 21 as well as home-grown. Dani Pacheco, Daniel Ayala, David Amoo Tom Ince, Lauri Dalla Valle, Martin Kelly and Jonjo Shelvey etc can be used regardless of the 25 man squad while others such Glen Johnson, Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole et al will be included in the squad as home-grown. As I have listed below though, we still have twenty first team squad members who don’t fit into either category. They are part of the “foreign-man allowance” as Roy likes to call it:

1. Diego Cavalieri, 2. Alberto Aquilani, 3. Daniel Agger, 4. Fabio Aurelio, 5. Fernando Torres, 6. Milan Jovanovic, 7. Sotirios Kyrgiakos, 8. Maxi Rodriguez, 9. Dirk Kuyt, 10. Ryan Babel, 11. Javier Mascherano, 12. Lucas Leiva, 13. David Ngog (now 21 and not home grown), 14. Pepe Reina, 15. Christian Poulsen, 16. Krisztian Nemeth, 17. Charles Itandje, 18) Nabil El Zhar, 19. Martin Skrtel 20. Damien Plessis.

As we are only allowed 17, three will either have to be sold, sent out loan or left to play in the reserves this season. It looks quite easy where we could sell the excess foreign players though. If we leave Javier Mascherano out of the equation for the time being as Roy has stated the Reds have received no offers for the player, it leaves us with a few other possibilities highlighted in red. Two goalkeepers in Diego Cavalieri and Charles Itandje, Nabil El Zhar and Damien Plessis are all options. Itandje, El Zhar and Plessis will be the most likely to go, and if Roy brings in Brad Jones, he could then sell Cavalieri to have only 16 foreign players, with the possibility of selling Javier Mascherano to give Hodgson even more freedom in his squad list.

Such players, other than Mascherano, will not raise many funds though, and both the sales of Masch and Emiliano Insua (a home-grown player) would be needed for new players to arrive at Anfield before the end of the transfer window. The new quota system is certainly raising a few issues in regards to transfers this summer.

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