Stop all this madness and put a limit on squad sizes in the PL.

[Park Life 71]

Uefa havebranded as "ridiculous" the number of players on the payroll of the Premier League's Big Four clubs. Liverpool, who under Rafa Benítez have stockpiled a 62-man squad, the biggest in the league and enough for more than five full teams, have come in for particular criticism.

 

Uefa limit clubs to 25 players each for the Champions league and their general secretary, David Taylor, speaking exclusively to Observer Sport, said: "Ridiculous. 62? You could have two full-size practice games. You can only field 11 at one time. It's an open question as to how many you actually need. Is it 20, 25?"

 

Taylor's comments are likely to spark a further row between the governing body of European football and the Premier League. Last week William Gaillard, special adviser to Uefa president Michel Platini, said: "One proposal which seems to be gaining a consensus is limiting the number of professional contracts as we already do in the Champions League. But we would need to get the backing of the major clubs, of the associations running their domestic competitions."

 

Taylor said he is unsure what benefit Liverpool might derive from having so many professionals. "You'd have to ask them," he said. When the question was put to Liverpool, they declined to comment.

 

The Premier League said squad size was a matter for individual clubs. "The size of a club's squad is for the club to decide upon. They will have their own aspirations to progress in different competitions over the season and as such will have a squad available to them that they feel meets those demands." Arsenal and Manchester United have more than 50 professionals each and Chelsea 46. Bolton have the fewest: 27.

 

Taylor supports limits on squad size and said: "Uefa has been in the vanguard of this and we certainly feel it's very useful. But that's for organisers of domestic leagues to decide among the clubs."

 

Liverpool have so many players that Benítez has been able to loan out 17 of them this season. Some of those on the Anfield payroll told Observer Sport that they find the situation "frustrating" and "demoralising". One young player, Craig Lindfield, 20, who is on loan at Accrington Stanley, said: "That's the difference between Liverpool and other clubs, young lads get more of a chance elsewhere." Gordon Taylor, the PFA chief executive, admitted to concerns over the future of these young players.

 

 

The other thing of course is to limit loans.

[Fop 1]

Whilst on the one hand I tend to shy away from over regulation, especially of sport, I think the time has pretty much come for a massive shake up like this.

 

It's just purely about the £££'s (Man City will get there too IF they throw enough at it).

 

Although IIRC we had 52ish when Keegan left the first time.

[Park Life 71]

Whilst on the one hand I tend to shy away from over regulation, especially of sport, I think the time has pretty much come for a massive shake up like this.

 

It's just purely about the £££'s (Man City will get there too IF they throw enough at it).

 

Although IIRC we had 52ish when Keegan left the first time.

 

I think 30 odd is a fair enough number.

[ChezGiven 0]

Whilst on the one hand I tend to shy away from over regulation, especially of sport, I think the time has pretty much come for a massive shake up like this.

 

It's just purely about the £££'s (Man City will get there too IF they throw enough at it).

 

Although IIRC we had 52ish when Keegan left the first time.

 

[Andrew 4966]

massive shakeups needed throughout top level football at the moment, this being one of them along with wage caps, clamping down on debts and a limit on foreign players, somethings needed to clamp donw on the insane amounts of money being spent on single players too

[Chaser 1321]

There definitely needs to be a limit on investment of players. I guess theres nothing wrong with spending on facilities, but when you have teams who just can't compete before the competition has even started is when the game begins to die. Its been going downhill for a few years now with Billionnaire owners and the wealth being concentrated at the top of the league. The more successful they are, the further they stretch the gap between them and the rest of us. Sour grapes? Maybe, but I dont think the league or even world football can sustain much more growth in money. I think we're nearing a point where theres a potential implosion going to happen.

[ImpossiblyDaft 1]

Problem with limiting squad sizes is that the big clubs will simply hoard the best players and not risk having any promising young players, rather than harvesting the youth in an Arsenal style manner; requires something more complex than simply saying 'no more than x players a season'.

[Andrew 4966]

Problem with limiting squad sizes is that the big clubs will simply hoard the best players and not risk having any promising young players, rather than harvesting the youth in an Arsenal style manner; requires something more complex than simply saying 'no more than x players a season'.

sort of works with hand in hand with the limiting of foriegn players

[Park Life 71]

massive shakeups needed throughout top level football at the moment, this being one of them along with wage caps, clamping down on debts and a limit on foreign players, somethings needed to clamp donw on the insane amounts of money being spent on single players too

 

 

Things need to happen fast before people forget what competitive football was all about.