In accordance with the new Barclays Premier League rules, Manchester United has revealed their 25-man squad, and as it was widely reported, Owen Hargreaves has been listed among them.
The Football Association, which oversees the Premier League, has made it so the 20 participating clubs must name a 25-man squad of players who are over 21 years of age, and at least eight of them have to be homegrown, but that term is a bit misleading.
A homegrown player is has to be registered with an English - or Welsh - club for three years before they turned 21 years of age, but still the term has left many fans scratching their heads.
Defined
Many think that "homegrown" means that players must be English and from their own club's academy, but this is not necessarily the case.
Shockingly, the unfit Hargreaves, who plays for the English national team, is ineligible to be considered as a homegrown player, because he played the majority of his career in Germany with Bayern Munich.
Another problem with this new rule, which has been openly opposed by Arsenal's Arsene Wenger, is causing a few problems for players from Scotland and Northern Ireland, because even though these players are technically British, they are being considered foreign in the terminology of this rule.
Fortunately for United, Darren Fletcher (Scottish), Darron Gibson (Ireland) and Jonny Evans (Northern Ireland) will all count as homegrown players, but that is only because they have come through the youth system at the club.
Advantages
However, Sir Alex can use as many under 21 players as he wants, regardless of their nationality, which is why the likes of Federico Macheda and the da Silva twins (Rafael and Fabio) have not been included in United's 25-man squad.
United could and can still purchase an 18-year old foreign player, because by the time he turns 21, he would be classified as "homegrown."
However, the club will still need eight homegrown players and having English players will still be the easiest way to meet the regulations, which should never be a problem for United because they have a good core of English players.
It is easy for players like Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley, who are both out on loan to other Premier League clubs, because by their sixteenth birthday they were already the club for three years, which makes them homegrown players already.
The point of this rule is the chiefs at the FA want to give English-born players a fighting chance to play in the world’s best league, which should make all of fans of the England national team very happy.
Throughout his managerial career with Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson has always given English-born players a real chance of making it at Old Trafford, and now that policy has pay dividends as the club has not scrambled to abide by the new rule.
Goalkeepers
Edwin van der Sar, Tomasz Kuszczak
Defenders
Gary Neville, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Nemanja Vidic, John O'Shea, Jonny Evans.
Midfielders
Owen Hargreaves, Anderson, Ji-Sung Park, Michael Carrick, Nani, Darren Fletcher, Antonio Valencia, Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs
Strikers
Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez
Contributed by David Hammons / The United Religion
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