Can we sign out of contract/released players?

Either on loan or perm? It seems that West ham are signing Diarra, but have they/us not already named our 25?

IF we can then let's get a list together of out of contract players and pick the best.

 

So we can sign anyone under a certain age (which Diarra isn't)? Am a bit confused.

We therefore have to hope Caulker or Ferdinand do not get injured, not to mention Austin?

 

You have a full 25 man squad, and you can't deregister those players until the summer so you can't sign anyone that needs to be on that list to play. But, players born in 1993 or later don't need to be in that 25 as they go on the U21s list (I know some are 22 now) so you can still sign them if they were a free agent at the end of the transfer window (but not if they were released after it closed).

West Ham only have 22 or 23 players in their 25 man squad. That means they can still sign older players like Diarra (free agents at the end of the transfer window again) and add them to their squad until they fill the 25.

 

Of course what West Ham have done is try to sign someone who's in a contract dispute with his old club (presumably over wages from before they agreed to part company) and had a move to Inter blocked 2 weeks ago as a result of the contract not having been formally terminated.

 

Why would a team of WHU's standing not be able to name a full 25 man squad?
We are now without Dunne/Onouha/Fer/Sandro/Faurlin and possibly Austin but that's 'tough' is it?

 

Aren't there allowances for emergencies? Maybe that's only for goalkeepers, though?

 

It no longer applies to goalkeepers, as we found out under Warnock when he wanted a loan 'keeper with Kenny & our third choice injured. You have to utilise your younger players.

I do disagree with Ricardo though. I have always been under the impression that you can't add anyone to the squad once it has been named. I also understood that if you had players under contract you had to name them to bring the number upto 25.

Isn't it that the only reason any squad in less than 25 is because they don't have the required number of players that graduated through English clubs. I believe this number is eight although I am far from certain on that.

Or to put it another way, if eight is correct, the maximum number of players that graduated outside England (& parts of Wales) is 18. This why clubs like Liverpool & City in the past have had less than 25.

 

I think 10 of the West Ham first team squad are on the U21s list so don't need to be named in the 25.

You can still sign a goalkeeper on an emergency loan if you are left with 1 or less that are on professional contracts. There's no change to the rule there, it's just that outside of the transfer window you have to follow a specific order - recalling anyone on emergency loans that's been out for more than 28 days (you have instant recall by default on those), recalling emergency loans that have been out for less than 28 days (you normally have to wait until 28 days, but dispensation will be given for a minor change like that), recalling long term loans (normally you need to wait til a transfer window, but dispensation will be given and this is at least your player in the first place). Then, and only then can you bring in a keeper from outside the club on an emergency loan. Putnins fell into the last category before you could sign someone else.

You can't remove anybody from your 25, but if you haven't named a full 25 in the first place you can add players until you have named 25. They have to have been free agents when the transfer window closed though. The same rules apply in the Football League (only with 10 homegrown players in the 25), and Bolton brought in Heskey and Gudjonnson before the window opened.

If you have players under contract at the deadline for submitting squads then you do have to name them. That even includes players you have loaned out to other clubs even though you're not allowed to recall them (a few years ago Sunderland had to name Elmohamady in their squad even though he'd just joined us on loan til the end of the season).

Clubs submit 2 lists, 1 is the 25 man squad, and the other is a list of U21 players (for this season that means born in 1993 or later). If a player can be put on the 2nd list then you don't have to name them on the 1st even if there's spaces. West Ham I think only have 22 players in their 32 man first team squad that are too old for the U21 list, so they only have to name 22 players in the 25 man list and the rest just play as U21s. That means they're free to sign 3 free agents.

As above, there's 2 reasons. One is not being able to because of the home grown rule. The other is not having 25 players that need to be named in the squad in order to play.

 

Thanks for that reply Ricardo.

Obviously, my understanding was not exact!

I do recall though that two years ago we were informed that Rangers had been told they had to name 25 if they had that amount of professionals over 21 on the books. This may of course have just been club spin!

 

So the OP is asking can we sign someone no one else wants, and Ricardo has provided the answer - if they are young enough.

Of course lots of injuries is bad luck and irritating, but I really don't believe any of our players are so brilliant as to be indispensible, and it gives the youngsters a chance - they may be better than we thought. As Steve 'Pat on the Back, Job Done' Black would say Find a ****ing Way@self publicity.com/ego.

 

That's right, you do have to name them. West Ham just only have 22 of those players, the other 10 qualify as U21.

 

Thanks Ricardo.

I wasn't really interested in the West Ham situation (apart from learning that you can add to the 25 in those circumstances).

I was trying to answer the questions that are posed every September & February. No, Queens Park Rangers can't add or change our named 25!