Hammers to decide on home grown players

Michail Antonio, Mark Noble, Ryan Fredericks, Jack Wilshere,  Aaron Cresswell and Dave Martin are all classed home-grown players for the coming Premier League season but the Hammers remain two short of a full quota.

Each Premier League club is required to have no more than 17 non-homegrown players in their squad and this summer the Hammers are under more pressure with the release of Andy Carroll and Moses Masaki both of who were used to meet the criteria last season and the sale of Sam Byram.

Possible sales or loans of Marcus Browne and Jordan Hugill further would reduce players who meet the homegrown rule.

This leaves Josh Cullen and Grady Diangana who could be possibly named in the squad as the seventh and eighth home-grown players of next season to allow the Hammers to reach the full quota but only if they are not sent out on loan.

Each Premier League team can only register 25 players over the age of 21 for that season’s first-team matches. Of those 25 players, no more than 17 can be non-home grown players. In other words, if you want the full complement of 25 over-21 players, you have to have at least 8 homegrown players. To be classified as a homegrown player you don’t need to be English but must be on an English team for at least three years before the age of twenty-one. You must have reached 21 by the end of the previous season so May 2019.

Players like Declan Rice, Connor Coventry and Nathan Holland are all under 21 while players like Robert Snodgrass and Xande Silva were not at an English for three years before their 21st birthday.