Squad limit

[Dutch Toffee]

What do you all think of this:

Premier League may cap squad sizes | Football | The Observer

Think it could be a good idea, as long as your allowed to bring academy players through during a season.

 

[Goat]

Its the same thing with the salary cap. All the poor teams want it and the teams with small squads will want this.

Everybody should get the chance to improve their squads how they want.

 

[Dutch Toffee]

Its the same thing with the salary cap. All the poor teams want it and the teams with small squads will want this.

Everybody should get the chance to improve their squads how they want.

Agree with that, but having a squad of 59 players sounds ridiculous to me. Sometimes it looks more like weakening your opponents than improving your own squad. Wouldn't mind some structure in squad sizes. For example, if you got a 30 man squad, at least 10 should be home grown talents.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Its the same thing with the salary cap. All the poor teams want it and the teams with small squads will want this.

Everybody should get the chance to improve their squads how they want.

Exactly. To be honest there is merit in having a smallish squad anyway. We've certainly done well out of it and I know Mourinho wanted a small squad at Chelsea. 2 quality players for each position and that was it. Helps to keep morale high and boost team spirit. Of course then he went to Inter who I think have about 100 players or something silly.

We have to be realistic here. The article says the average squad size is 40 but many of those will be youngsters without a hope of getting near the first team. The likes of Irvine and Agard probably count in our first team squad but neither is likely to play. I suspect most clubs have a core group of around 25 players that play games for them throughout the season.

What the article doesn't mention is the average number of players that have played a first team game this season, and I suspect they omit that because then it destroys their rhetorical argument. For instance we've had 24 players turn out for us this season in senior football, yet our first team squad lists 33 players on the OS. I suspect the majority are the same.