Home-Grown Quota: Start of something special?

Next season the Premier League will introduce their new “Home-Grown” quota; Home-Grown means that the player was trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English and Welsh professional system.

At the end of the Transfer window clubs will be required to have a squad named of up to 25 players, 8 of which must be Home-Grown. That gives you 17 players who can be from outside of the system and over 21.

You can have more than 25 players in your squad of course, but at the end of the Transfer season you must submit a list of 25 that abides to the rules above. But above the 25 players outlined you can only have who are Under 21 years of age, further strengthening the call to develop youth.

That’s all you need to know about the Technical side of it, however what really matters is its intent. Many of the top clubs in England have been content on buying players from overseas and shunning the academy system, even though the system could well have saved these clubs a large quantity of money.

Due to the global financial crisis the system has had an increased focus and many teams have turned to their academy for support. This season has been one for the smaller clubs and their academy’s, many under 21’s have stepped up to the plate and competed with the big boys.

Blackburn’s Phil Jones only 18 years old made his senior debut in March at Ewood Park against Title winners Chelsea, His performance was praised by manager Sam Allardyce saying "He made his debut and it was an outstanding performance from the young man, he showed a lot of commitment and a lot of quality and it revved everybody up.” Going on from this he made a further 8 starts for the Rover.

Chris Smalling of Fulham started his career at non-league Maidstone United before being spotted by Fulham, He was made Captain of the reserve side and he has gone on to start 13 games for Fulham this season. Impressing Manchester United scouts as he has agreed a deal that will take him to Old Trafford next season.

Sunderland made two discoveries this season in Jordan Henderson and David Meyler,
both are now key figure’s at the Stadium of Light, Henderson impressed Steve Bruce in pre-season and when Sunderland lost Lee Cattermole to injury Bruce had no hesitation to play Henderson and his faith in the youngster has paid off as he has gone from strength to strength. Meyler, who has been one of the stars for Sunderland in the latter half of the season, has already rewritten record books by covering more ground than any other player in Premier League history - 14 km against Hull City.

These Gems are just the start of what I believe could be the most exciting season yet for young prospects as they get they will get the chance to show off their stuff against the players they look up to and hopefully they can push on and push in to the England national team.