28 Aug 2014 11:25:18
3 players who I'd love to see arrive at Everton on Deadline day or before then:

Cerci (£15m) - Explosive left winger who's miles better than Pienaar and will get goals!

Welbeck (Loan)- We are favourites to sign him, Could do a good job for us as we need squad depth for Europe.

Richards (Loan)- We need cover at RB & CB and he can do both! Could be the next Gareth Barry type signing.

If those three signed we would have a brilliant squad for 14/15 season!

1.) 28 Aug 2014
So who would you drop from the registered 25-man squads (Premier League and Europa League) to accommodate these incoming players? By my reckoning, we already have 24 players that would have to be registered in order to be eligible to play AND any player under 21 who hasn't been with us for at least two years (e.g. Lukaku, Stones, Stanek, Galloway) would have to included in the Europa League squad in order to be eligible to play. Then there's the question of homegrown players: at least 8 in the PL squad; at least 4 club-trained players in the EL squad (we have Hibbert, Osman, Duffy and McAleny) PLUS at least 4 association-trained players in the EL squad (we have Baines, Jagielka, McCarthy, Barry and Gibson). We can't have more than 17 non-homegrown players in either squad. Lukaku and Stanek would be non-homegrown players - Stones and Galloway would be association-trained. Other under-21 players, like Barkley, Garbutt, Browning, etc., would be eligible to play PL and EL matches without being in the registered 25-man squads. By the way, two of the EL squad must be keepers - for us that's surely Howard and Robles.
It's all very complicated and makes any the squad selections quite challenging for RM.
Go on - have a go at listing the PL squad and the EL squad you'd like to see - but remember the rules ;-)

{Ed001's Note - Lukaku should count as home grown as he was at Chelsea (even though he never played for them and was out on loan) for 2 years before the age of 21. Unless they have altered the rules regarding that.}

2.) 28 Aug 2014
Ed001: I stand corrected about Lukaku being classed as an 'association-trained' homegrown player, as he has spent 3 seasons (albeit partly on loan and with different clubs) in England while under 21 :-)

3.) 28 Aug 2014
28 Aug 2014 15:58:18
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Crystal Palace have a squad of 31 last year?

4.) 28 Aug 2014
28 Aug 2014 18:37:47
SWLP: you're mistaken :-)
Premier League clubs can only register 25 players aged over 21 to be eligible to play. The club can make changes during the transfer window, but have to stay within the 25 limit as any incomings & outgoings are made. So, a team might use 31 players during the season, but that'll reflect changes during the transfer window. At no time would the squad actually exceed 25. They can also use as many players aged under 21 as they like.