Premier League clubs 25 man squads

[BaZ87]

The other year the Premier League introduced a rule whereby clubs had to announce a 25 man squad at the end of each transfer window. Of the 25 named, a maximum of 17 could be non-home grown (home grown = players trained in the country for a minimum of 3 years prior to their 21st birthday) and players 21 or under didn't need to be registered.

It was reported that the main reason for this rule being introduced was to stop the top clubs from hoarding players. So who do you think were the only 4 clubs to take up their full allocation of 25 players? QPR, Stoke, Sunderland and Spurs

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~2440123,00.html

Has there ever been a more pointless rule? :/

 

[BaZ87]

I think it's more likely to be due to the lack of quality under-21 players at those clubs, as the bigger clubs tend to have more first team under-21s that aren't included as part of their 25 named players.

That's certainly true and is what makes the rule pointless.

With the amount of under-21's around now, no club needs 25 senior players and the very few clubs that do have that many won't use all of them. The make-up of squads hasn't changed because of this rule, it's just a rule for the sake of having a rule.

If they wanted to encourage the use of more young players then they should have made it a 20 man squad.