Our 25 man squad for season 2019/20

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Brown Nose

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I've been going on about this so I thought I'd separate it out for its own thread as I think it will get interesting over the coming weeks.

You can only name 25 players born before 1st January 1998 for your squad. Of these, you have to include no more than 17 that do not qualify as 'home grown', i.e. they have to have been registered in England/Wales for 3 years before their 21st birthday.

We named 25 players last season and easily achieved the 'home grown' rule, with 12 of our players counting towards this. However, it did mean that we ended up not including in this group, for various reasons, several players that remain at the club now and who are over 21 - Benkovic, Moore, Hughes, Elder, Kapustka, Slimani, King and Thomas.

Other players that were U21 last year, are no longer U21. So we now have to include the likes of Barnes, Knight, Uche, Iverson and Loft in our 25 man squad to play them in the Premier League. Justin and Choudhury are notable players that count as U21.

Of that original 25 man list from last season, we've lost only two players - Simpson and Okazaki. We've also now added two - Perez and Tielemans (imminently). The three players we added yesterday (Daley-Campbell, Hirst and Reghba all count as U21).

This means that, without any further additions, we have currently got 38 over 21 year old players for 25 places. Of those 38, I think 20 do not qualify as home grown.

Rob Tanner and RL have both said that they understand that Rodgers wanted to add 5 players to the first team squad this summer - which suggests that (after Tielemans) we've got two left to sign. This means that we've got to lose about 15 players in the next month unless we want them sitting around doing nothing. Why aren't we selling anyone?
 
We are going to loan several out?
 
I would expect to see some contracts cancelled on deadline day if we haven’t shifted any by then. Callum Elder isn’t, presumably, going to spend his entire career being loaned out to Championship clubs. Andy King and Matty James will want to play at this stage of their careers. The over age players who aren’t considered first-teamers yet will need to do something, so I imagine a few of them will be loaned out. It’s a lot of fat to trim though. Gonna be pricey.
 
Yeah at least 5-10 of those will be out on loan:

Elder, Thomas, Uche, Diabate, James, King, Moore, Hughes. No way they let Slimani stay even if they have to pay him to go home.

Here’s my best guess at current 25:

1. Kasper
2. Ward
3. Iversen
4. Ricardo
5. Justin
6. Amartey
7. Fuchs
8. Chilwell
9. Evans
10. Morgan
11. Maguire
12. Soyuncu
13. Benkovic
14. Ndidi
15. Mendy
16. Hamza
17. Tielemans
18. Maddison
19. Vardy
20. Barnes
21. Perez
22. Gray
23. Albrighton
24. Nacho Man
25. Ghezzal


Of that list Iversen, Ghezzal and possibly one of the young centre backs miss out. Possibly Amartey too, but I doubt it.

I think Kapustka could be a wild card.

Imagine having a 13 million pound winger not even getting a shirt. Games gone mad.
 
We are becoming the new Chelsea.

The difference is that Chelsea and most other clubs send predominantly young players on loan to gain experience. We can't claim that.

We've got at least 15 over 21s not good enough for us now or ever.
 
25 man squad:

Schmeichel
Ward
Iversen
Maguire
Benkovic
Evans
Morgan
Soyuncu
Chilwell
Fuchs
Ricardo
Ndidi
Mendy
Amartey
Choudhury
Albrighton
Maddison
Barnes
Gray
Ghezzal
Perez
Vardy
Iheanacho

Tielemans, if he signs

That's 24 players, giving us room to sign another one.
If we sign more than one, Amartey/Soyuncu/Ghezzal could be loaned out. We might want to loan out one or two of them anyway.


Under 21s in the first team squad:
Justin


Young players with a possible future at the club to either loan out or use in the under 23s:


Knight - did well on loan at Peterborough, particularly when played in midfield.
Hughes - looked good in his first season, but suffered from injuries last season.
Thomas - looked decent for our under 23s, but didn't impress in a struggling Scunthorpe team on loan.
Moore? - Not seen much of him, but seemed to do well at OHL.
Kapustka - Hasn't been any good for us, but obviously has potential. A loan to a Championship club might do him good.




Players to sell / loan / get rid of.

Uche - keep in the under 23s if no one else wants him
Loft - ditto
Elder - couldn't get into a poor Ipswich team last season. Too old for the under 23s. I expect he'll end up in League One.
Jakupovic - it's been reported that we don't want to loan out Iversen again, so presumably he's going to be third choice goalkeeper, leaving Jakupovic surplus to requirements.
Silva
King
James
Diabate Did well in Turkey. Looks like he wants to go back there.
Slimani Will another club want him after last season?



I'm sure Rodgers will want to look at everyone in pre-season, so maybe one or two will impress him enough to get a surprise place in the 25.
 
My list of the over 21s:

Keepers: Schmeichel, Ward, Iverson. Sell/release Jakupovic.

Defenders: Ricardo, Evans, Chilwell, Benkovic, Soyuncu, Maguire, Fuchs, Morgan, Amartey. Sell/release Elder. Hughes, Moore, Knight out on loan. I still think it's more likely than not that Maguire will go.

Midfielders: Ndidi, Choudhury, Tielemans, Maddison, Albrighton, King. Sell Silva, Mendy. Release James. I'd rather have King as a back up than Mendy, who is too good to hardly ever play. We're better off selling him if there is a taker. King is a great player to have around the place even if he never plays. My other serious quandary here is over Albrighton. I've no idea how he fits into this team any more. Great squad player, but can't see him getting much game time. We're still one forward minded midfielder short here so need to add one.

Forwards: Vardy, Barnes, Perez, Iheanacho, Gray. Sell/loan Kapustka, Ghezzal, Diabate, Slimani. Loan/release Loft, Thomas, Uche. I'd happily sell Gray but think he'll stay. Even then, we're one short here so need to sign another attacking player.

I've got 23 here with two to add - one midfielder and one forward.

I've got 11 surplus to requirements that we need to sell or release: Jakupovic, Elder, Silva, Mendy, James, Kapustka, Ghezzal, Diabate, Slimani, Loft, Thomas. I just cannot see any circumstances where we need any of these players any more.

I've got these 4 to go on loan: Hughes, Moore, Knight, Uche. If Maguire goes, I'd rather we keep one of these young defenders in the squad than sign another one.

I'm not a fan of wholesale loans of young players. Only when it's clearly the right thing to do. Hughes and Uche could benefit from a season in Belguim with OHL.
 
Jakupovic will still be here better to loan Ivesen out to a championship side

I read a report last week that said we didn't want to loan him out, after Brentford asked about having him on loan. I can't find that report, but I can find one that says Brentford wanted to buy him, but were told he's not for sale. So maybe he will go on loan, with Rotherham apparently also interested in having him for a season.
 
My other serious quandary here is over Albrighton. I've no idea how he fits into this team any more. Great squad player, but can't see him getting much game time.

When he came back from injury last season, he got straight back into the side and he played pretty regularly after that, so I would say that Rodgers knows how he fits into the team.
 
I read a report last week that said we didn't want to loan him out, after Brentford asked about having him on loan. I can't find that report, but I can find one that says Brentford wanted to buy him, but were told he's not for sale. So maybe he will go on loan, with Rotherham apparently also interested in having him for a season.
think I saw something on Sky, I think they were looking to buy not loan
 
My list of the over 21s:

Keepers: Schmeichel, Ward, Iverson. Sell/release Jakupovic.

Defenders: Ricardo, Evans, Chilwell, Benkovic, Soyuncu, Maguire, Fuchs, Morgan, Amartey. Sell/release Elder. Hughes, Moore, Knight out on loan. I still think it's more likely than not that Maguire will go.

Midfielders: Ndidi, Choudhury, Tielemans, Maddison, Albrighton, King. Sell Silva, Mendy. Release James. I'd rather have King as a back up than Mendy, who is too good to hardly ever play. We're better off selling him if there is a taker. King is a great player to have around the place even if he never plays. My other serious quandary here is over Albrighton. I've no idea how he fits into this team any more. Great squad player, but can't see him getting much game time. We're still one forward minded midfielder short here so need to add one.

Forwards: Vardy, Barnes, Perez, Iheanacho, Gray. Sell/loan Kapustka, Ghezzal, Diabate, Slimani. Loan/release Loft, Thomas, Uche. I'd happily sell Gray but think he'll stay. Even then, we're one short here so need to sign another attacking player.

I've got 23 here with two to add - one midfielder and one forward.

I've got 11 surplus to requirements that we need to sell or release: Jakupovic, Elder, Silva, Mendy, James, Kapustka, Ghezzal, Diabate, Slimani, Loft, Thomas. I just cannot see any circumstances where we need any of these players any more.

I've got these 4 to go on loan: Hughes, Moore, Knight, Uche. If Maguire goes, I'd rather we keep one of these young defenders in the squad than sign another one.

I'm not a fan of wholesale loans of young players. Only when it's clearly the right thing to do. Hughes and Uche could benefit from a season in Belguim with OHL.

On the whole I agree. With one big exception- Mendy. Excellent player for closing out games and a ready replacement for Ndidi. Although I rate Choudhury I'd prefer to loan him out to a championship team for a year than lose Mendy.

Edit: main reason behind this is I think Choudhury is still too young and inexperienced to replace Ndidi. We have a young team, having Mendy there I believe will help them.
 
On the whole I agree. With one big exception- Mendy. Excellent player for closing out games and a ready replacement for Ndidi. Although I rate Choudhury I'd prefer to loan him out to a championship team for a year than lose Mendy.

Edit: main reason behind this is I think Choudhury is still too young and inexperienced to replace Ndidi. We have a young team, having Mendy there I believe will help them.

I'm wobbling on King over Mendy to be fair. However, no way should we be loaning out Choudhury after the progress he made last season. By the end of the season he was getting selected ahead of Mendy on merit.

If Ndidi and Choudhury remain fit, we just don't need Mendy. When would he be even on the bench to help close out a game?

However, if say Ndidi picked up an injury that kept him out for four months, that's putting a lot of pressure on Choudhury and we saw in the U21s that he's not quite there in terms of reliability. In those circumstances, I'd much rather have Mendy than King!

Mendy or King. Hmm.
 
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