Home Grown Players (HGP) Quota – January 2021 Transfer Window

I tend to write each year about the 25-man squad and the implications of the home grown players rule and how it will impact on Spurs’ transfer strategy. The home grown player numbers could impact on how many signings José Mourinho can make, the nature of those signings and/or the size of our squad for the rest of the season.

The Premier League ‘Home Grown Players (HGP)’ Rule

The misconception about the requirement itself is that clubs must name eight home grown players in their squads. We could name fewer than eight HGPs, but would need to also name fewer than 25 players in our squad — for example, if we only have seven HGPs, we can name a 24-man squad, 6/23, 5/22, etc. 

Remember, an HGP is defined as one whom, irrespective of 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, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21). Source: Premier League.

As ever, we will not need to name players who are under 21 on our squad list, so could augment our squad with youngsters. This would mean that we could manage with, say, a 22-man squad with just five HGPs, but would need plenty of under 21 players who are ready to play (particularly if we qualify for the Europa League). For the 2020/21 campaign, players considered ‘under 21’ will have been born on or after 1st January 1999. This means that for the current season we still have a number of ‘freebies’ who are fairly well-known names: Brandon Austin, Gedson Fernandes (if he stays…), Japhet Tanganga, Jack Clarke, Jamie Bowden, Harvey White, J’Neil Bennett, Malachi Fagan-Walcott, Dennis Cirkin.

Remember, we also have some players out on-loan – these players could also have been classified as ‘freebies’: Jack Roles, TJ Eyoma, Ryan Sessegnon, Oliver Skipp, Troy Parrott. More players may well move out on loan in January.

The Europa League ‘Home Grown Players (HGP)’ Rule

The Europa League rules are a little different to the Premier League rules — have a look at article 42 (‘Player lists’) of the regulations. UEFA don’t just want clubs to have players trained elsewhere in the FA structure — they have additional requirements for club-trained players. They want to encourage clubs to bring through their own young players.

If we want to name a ‘full’ squad in the Europa League, we would need at least four ‘association-trained’ players (we currently have: Hart, Dele, Doherty, Sessegnon, Clarke) and four ‘club-trained’ players (we currently have: Bale, Georgiou, Kane, Marsh, Rose, Sterling, Tracey, Whiteman and Winks). Many of these players are on-loan (Sessegnon, Sterling, Tracey), or simply not likely to be selected (Georgiou, Marsh, Rose).

Summary

When we named our Premier League squad list in October, we included exactly 25 players, nine of whom were HGP: Dele Alli, Gareth Bale, Ben Davies, Matt Doherty, Joe Hart, Harry Kane, Joe Rodon, Alfie Whiteman, Harry Winks. If we were to sell or loan Dele or Winks, we would would be able to add one additional HGP or non-HGP without removing any other players from the squad list. If we were to sell or loan both, we would only be able to name a 24-man squad unless we signed a new HGP.

It’s a more delicate situation in the Europa League, though. The bottom line is that, if we were to sell or loan Dele and/or Winks, our Europa League squad would be reduced. We could replace Dele with another association-trained player were we to sign someone new, but we could only replace Winks with a club-trained player (Georgiou, Marsh, Rose, Sterling, Tracey). Of course, we could also sign a non-locally trained player and remove another from the Europa League squad.

#	Player	DOB	Age	Status	PL HGP	EL Locally Trained
1	Hugo Lloris	26/12/1986	34
2	Joe Hart	19/04/1987	33		Y	Association
3	Toby Alderweireld	02/03/1989	31
4	Gareth Bale	16/07/1989	31		Y	Club
5	Moussa Sissoko	16/08/1989	31
6	Danny Rose	02/07/1990	30		Y	Club
7	Paulo Gazzaniga	02/01/1992	28
8	Matt Doherty	16/02/1992	28		Y	Association
9	Erik Lamela	04/03/1992	28
10	Son Heung-min	08/07/1992	28
11	Lucas Moura	13/08/1992	28
12	Serge Aurier	24/12/1992	28
13	Ben Davies	24/04/1993	27		Y
14	Harry Kane	28/07/1993	27		Y	Club
15	Eric Dier	15/01/1994	26
16	Pierre-Emile Højbjerg	05/08/1995	25
17	Harry Winks	02/02/1996	24		Y	Club
18	Giovani Lo Celso	09/04/1996	24
19	Dele Alli	11/04/1996	24		Y	Association
20	Davinson Sánchez	12/06/1996	24
21	Sergio Reguilón	16/12/1996	24
22	Tanguy Ndombele	28/12/1996	24
23	Anthony Georgiou	24/02/1997	23		Y	Club
24	Steven Bergwijn	08/10/1997	23
25	Joe Rodon	22/10/1997	23		Y
26	Cameron Carter-Vickers	31/12/1997	22	On-loan	Y	Club
27	Juan Foyth	12/01/1998	22	On-loan
28	Shilow Tracey	29/04/1998	22	On-loan	Y	Club
29	Alfie Whiteman	02/10/1998	22		Y	Club
30	George Marsh	05/11/1998	22		Y	Club
31	Kazaiah Sterling	09/11/1998	22	On-loan	Y	Club
32	Gedson Fernandes	09/01/1999	21		N/A
33	Ryan Sessegnon	18/05/2000	20	On-loan	N/A	Association
34	Jack Clarke	23/11/2000	20		N/A	Association

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