Is it 4 or 3? I thought the ruling was that they had to be at the club for 3 years before his 21st birthday, so he should qualify as club trained by the time he reaches 20 no?
So there’s 2 different things:
- your squad of 25 which needs a minimum of 4 club trained and 4 homegrown players. Club trained players are those who have been at the club for 3 years before they’re 21 (so Gray & Berg will be in this category by the time they hit 21).
- this can be supplemented by list B which is your u21s. However u21s only count if they’ve been at the club for 2 years. So in our case, Gray, Bergvall, Takai, Vuskovic and some others who joined since 2023 and are u21 would have to be counted within the 25 were we to use them in the CL.
There is a bit of a false narrative that you NEED 4 club trained players, you don’t. But currently we only have Austin which means effectively our CL squad can only be 22 players PLUS those that qualify as list B. And given our squad is over 30 players it means some will miss out in its current state.
What it also means is that loaning out u21s who’ve been at the club less than 2 years and therefore can’t be list B might be more appealing than our u21s (such as Mikey) who have been here longer and therefore can be in the CL squad without reducing our slots for other players.
Personally, I think our players’ development is more important than a single seasons CL campaign. So if it was the case that Frank thought he’d hardly use Moore in the league but wanted to keep him around for the 3/4 easier group games and 2/3 League Cup games, then I’d be more inclined to let him go to WBA and get 20+ starts in competitive football.
