I'm posting this after a discussion on the "What to do about Anderson" thread, note that this is NOT a "who should we buy for next season" thread, no doubt there will be plenty of those in the summer. Our focus should be on winning title number 20, before looking forward to next season. However, there are many threads discussing the future of our players, "should we keep him or shouldn't we?" etc. My concern is that our 25 man squad for next season is going to be swelled by quite a few players who have until now been considered under 21, so we have been able to have a very large squad in the past. We have had terrible luck regarding injuries this year, in defence and in midfield, but have coped due to the strength of our squad (among other reasons). As far as I know, if a player turns 21 during the year (i.e. is 20 on 1 January), then he will qualify as an under-21 player for the squad submitted at the start of the Premier league season in August. So, for example, David de Gea was born on 7 Nov 1990, he is 21 now but was 20 at the start of last year so he would have qualified as an under-21 player for the current season. (If I have misunderstood this rule please let me know, but as far as I know this is correct). That means that any player born in 1990 would not count towards the 25-man squad limit this year, but they will count towards it next season. So what do David de Gea, Danny Welbeck, the Da Silva twins, Ben Amos and Bebe all have in common? You guessed it, they are all born in 1990! Alright, Bebe is likely to go out on loan again or be sold, but the other 5 are virtually guarenteed to make the squad. So how does our squad look for next season then? Goalkeepers (3 over 21's) de Gea (1990) Lindegaard Amos (1990) Defenders (8 over 21's) Vidic Ferdinand Evans Smalling (1989) Jones (1992, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) Evra Rafael (1990) Fabio (1990) Fryers (1992, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) De Laet (unlikely that he will make the squad) Midfielders (10 over 21's) Carrick Fletcher Scholes Giggs Anderson Cleverley Park Valencia Nani Young Pogba (1993, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) Tunnicliffe (1992, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) Norwood (1991, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) Bebe (1990, but not included as he should be loaned out or sold) Forwards (4 over 21's) Rooney Hernandez Welbeck (1990) Owen? Macheda (1991, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) Will Keane (1993, doesn't count towards 25-man squad) (assuming Berbatov is sold) Let me know if any of this is incorrect, I'll edit my post... By my reckoning we will have a full 25 man squad if Owen stays on for another year, if not we'll have a 24 man squad. This does not give us too much flexibility in terms of new signings, although we have a few older players who may only stay on for one further year, opening up space in the squad for the following season. Fans clamouring for a big-name midfield signing may be disappointed this summer, I think it's more likely that SAF will make that signing in a year's time once Scholes and perhaps Giggs have retired, and he's had a further year to assess the progress of Anderson, Cleverley and Pogba. If a big signing is made this summer it's likely someone else would need to be sold first, not due to financial reasons (as the press and rival fans would have you believe), but due to the squad size. Thoughts?
