The world’s richest league has run out of players recently. Clubs who own 70 or 80 footballers argued they could not field teams. Some such claims may be met with sympathy, others with scepticism but amid a raft of postponements, there was a common theme: managers were short of footballers.
In some instances, that was their fault. There is a pandemic but there has been an epidemic of unvaccinated footballers and many of the call-offs could be traced to them, either because they had tested positive for coronavirus or were self-isolating. Those citing “player welfare,” a phrase that suddenly appears ubiquitous, have to get themselves and their players jabbed before they can legitimately do so. But many footballers have been unavailable, whether due to COVID or injuries.
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It is a fact that the fixture list is congested at this time of year and that the recent cancellations will make it busier in the next few months, even with FA Cup third- and fourth-round replays being removed. It is too late to alleviate the situation this week, in a midweek round of fixtures that some clubs wanted postponed.
There are nevertheless measures that could be taken for the second half of the season which may reduce injuries which, in turn, lead to others being overworked and thus potentially more at risk. One, which may well favour the bigger clubs, is to allow five substitutions per game.
But perhaps a better solution would be to expand squad sizes. Premier League clubs are currently limited to 25 senior players plus an unlimited number of registered under-21 players (born in or after 2000). In reality, that means many have at least 35 plausible choices. It felt needless when Chelsea, with their famously productive academy, only named four outfield substitutes for their stalemate at Wolves, while ignoring a raft of youngsters, some of whom then acquitted themselves well in the Carabao Cup win at Brentford.
But Leicester’s Papy Mendy was an example of a senior player who his club could not fit into a 25-man squad when it was named in September; Leicester were a club who had games called off. But Mendy is outnumbered: clubs who have stockpiled players have loaned so many out.
And while the terms of their various moves can mean some cannot be recalled this season, others surely can. Chelsea are apparently unable to bring Billy Gilmour or Conor Gallagher back but they have sent 22 players to other clubs and wanted a postponement last week. If some were back at Stamford Bridge, there should be no repeat.
Chelsea are an extreme case but Aston Villa have 15 senior or under-23 players loaned out; they ran out of players for the Burnley game that ultimately wasn’t. Watford have players at Udinese, Las Palmas, Reading, QPR, Fulham and Nottingham Forest. Brighton have loaned to both leading Championship clubs and other European leagues. All had matches called off.
There are some clear examples of where players are benefiting from the experience of regular first-team action and there may well be some less obvious instances that will nevertheless have a positive impact in the long term, but it feels faintly ridiculous when clubs with this depth of talent and this number of footballers on their books claim they are unable to field a side. In some cases, they are being paid to play for other clubs, while they themselves incur costs because they do not fulfil a fixture.
The strange circumstances of the last couple of years have meant many regulations have been tweaked temporarily, to afford more understanding in difficult times, to lessen the workload, to reduce the risk of injury.
And so there is a case for expanding squad sizes for the rest of this season: from 25 to perhaps 28, allowing them to bring back some footballers of talent, potential or pedigree in January and to give them the numbers to make it less likely that further matches don’t go ahead.
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