UEFA watch 2017-18

Our last Champions League group game is against Apoel at Wembley on December 6th.
I think that the next opportunity to change of European squad is in February, though.

 

Yep - we can change 3 players before the knock-out rounds.
Having re-read the rules I'm pretty sure Davies doesn't count as locally trained for UEFA matches as Swansea are not a member of the same Association as Spurs.

 

Do Monaco have the same issues or does it only apply to one Principality?

 

I think they have taken the precaution of joining the French FA......

 

Swansea count as English under UEFA, though:
https://www.uefa.com/teamsandplayers/teams/club=52659/domestic/index.html

 

This may explain it.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/may/06/fa-faw-cardiff-swansea
This only happened in 2012 so Ben Davies would have already spent 2 years being trained by a club that wasn't in our Association.

 

Alternatively, neither Kane or Rose qualify as Club trained as they were out on loan too much so we have more than four Association trained players.

 

The regulation says:
An "association-trained player" is a player who, between the age of 15 (or the start of the season during which the player turns 15) and 21 (or the end of the season during which the player turns 21), and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with a club or with other clubs affiliated to the same association as that of his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months.
Swansea were affiliated to FA of Wales prior to the 2012/13 season and Davies turned 21 before the end of the 2013/14 season so he has only two seasons registered with the same Association as Spurs so counts in the 17 non-locally-trained players.
I don't really understand why Dele Alli is on the list as he seems to qualify as an U-21 player.
A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1996 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.
But it doesn't really matter as we have 4 more spaces free for locally trained players.

 

The Davies situation is utterly ridiculous. Swansea haven't switched leagues and neither has the player. Nonsense rule.
I think that Alli has to go on the list because he's not been at the club for two years or something.

 

The anomaly is caused by Welsh teams being in an English league. It seems to be sorted now by them submitting to the FA's jurisdiction but I can see why UEFA don't want to make it a special case.

 

I can't. It's not like Swansea have changed from the Welsh League to the English pyramid.
Cesc Fabregas and Alex Song are homegrown. Eric Dier and Ben Davies aren't. Stupid.

The club trained rule is even more stupid, as it favours bigger clubs enormously.
Who can keep players that are over 21 that are playing regularly in European club competitions for years?
Have to sell them? Oh, well. Put up with a smaller squad, peasants.

 

The Welsh, Scottish and N. Irish FAs are normally violently opposed to special cases in case it affects their independence.
The rule can't be based on player's nationalities because that would be illegal. I see what you mean about the club trained bit, but if it wasn't there the big clubs could just poach the players anyway and wouldn't need to invest in their own academy. But the whole thing is a rather ineffective and badly designed sticking plaster on a massive sore.

 

I don't see how Swansea being part of the English football pyramid has anything to do with the Welsh FA.
It's not new. They've never played in a Welsh league of any sort.
The crossover between home nations' sides playing in each other's trophies predates FIFA and UEFA.
Penalising clubs and players for that is just an arrogant oversight.

As with FFP, the situation with club trained players isn't a bug, it's a feature.
It claims to be one thing but is clearly something else entirely.

 

Ricky Villa apparently spoke to an Argentine radio station and mentioned there's concerns that Lamela may never play again. Devastating if that's the case.

 

Really hope this isn't true. I had my fears when what was meant to be a relatively innocuous injury that was meant to keep him out for "2 or 3 months' suddenly became a year out with surgery at the end of it.

Would explain why he isn't in the CL squad and would also explain and justify our intense interest in Barkley. If Coco really is forced into an early retirement, we are worryingly short of options up there.

 

Yeah it's a real kick in the bollocks. Was hoping we'd see him back sooner rather than later but that's now highly unlikely.

Options-wise it won't be any different from last season, so I'm hoping "the three" can pick up where they left of with Harry. But it would've been so much better knowing Erik would've been back in contention within a few weeks or so. Step up GK/ Sissoko/ Edwards.

 

I'd be gutted if Lamela had to retire. Mainly for him, as he seems like a nice guy and I think he'd be devastated.
He's had a few setbacks over the last year or so and I really hope this is just a worst case scenario and he'll be back.

His current absence should be seen as an opportunity for our youngsters, though.
We seem to have a decent amount of attacking talent waiting in the wings, so hopefully someone will step up.
Edwards is the most likely candidate and they play the same role, so this is the chance that he's been waiting for.
There's a lot of hype in the media and interest from other clubs, by all accounts. Let's see how much of it is justified.

 

Levante take an early lead against Real:

Carvajal with some quality defending from the Pulis throw-in!

 

Celtic v PSG.
If ever there was a game where PSG's much vaunted front three were going to get on the scoresheet - and all in the first half too!

 

Have FC Carrierbag turned up?
Even Frank Zappa-Costa has scored.