Southampton 2016-2017 Premier League/European Squad/Roster Summer Update One

I made several errors in this post with respect to Yoshida, Olamola, and  Bakery.  Fixes are in bold.

This is an update to an earlier post found here.  I used this post for information on Southampton contracts.  However, I will repeat some material from that post so that this post will stand on its own.

The primary difference between European rosters and Premier League rosters is that the Premier League does not currently distinguish among the types of home grown players.  We are required to have eight home grown players on our roster or we have to leave empty roster spots.  In Europe, eight home grown players are also required but at least four of them have to be trained at the club.  Unlike last summer where only Isgrove was club, this year we have five potential club trained players—at least one of whom, Ward-Prowse—is likely to be useful.

Each club is required to submit two different European roster lists at each registration deadline.  The registration deadlines occur immediately prior to each qualification/playoff round, the group stage, and the knock out stage.  There are limitations on registering players who have already played for someone else in the same competition during the same season, but those limits do not matter right now.

The “B” list is the easier to explain.  A player is eligible to be place on Southampton’s “B” list if they were born on or after 1 January 1995 and were eligible to play for Southampton for any two uninterrupted years since their 15th birthday.  If they are 16, then need to have been registered with Southampton for the last two years.  There is no limit to the number of players who can be registered on the B list.

I went through the official Southampton FC website (and other sources) and came up with a list of B list eligible players for next season.  I have listed only those players currently with the club who have signed professional contracts.  This does not mean that players without pro contracts are not eligible—just that they are unlikely to be significant enough to our plans for the coming season to worry about.

Southampton can register up to 25 players on the A list.  However, at least eight players must be “locally trained” and at least four of those players must be “club-trained.”  The other four can be “association-trained.

“Club-trained” players are ones who have been registered with Southampton for three full seasons between ages 15 and 21.  The seasons can include the ones where the player turns 15 or 21.  Unlike last year when Southampton had only one club trained player, we now have five.  Only Ward-Prowse has seen significant playing time, but, if we qualify for Europe, I would expect three of the other four to be with the club next season unless they are viewed as literally being worse that nothing.

An “association-trained” player is one who has been registered with one or more clubs from the same association for three seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.  Obviously, all club-trained players are also association-trained players for the nation in which the club is registered.  If a club does not have enough club-trained or association-trained players, it must leave the roster spots empty.  That is why we entered Europe last year with three empty roster spots.

The following is a list of current Southampton players sorted into their appropriate European categories for the 2016-2017 season.

EUROPEAN SQUAD LIST (AS OF 11/7/16)

                                                                A LIST

B-List                          Other                         Association Trained                   Club Trained

Bakary*                      Clasie                         Austin                                           Gape

Barnes                        Fonte                        Bertrand                                        Isgrove

Cook                           Gardos                      Davis                                              Stephens

Debayo                      Gazzaniga                 Forster                                          Turnbull

Flannigan                  Hojbjerg**                Lewis***                                      Ward-Prowse

Gallagher                  Martina                    Long  

Hesketh                    Romeu                      Redmond

Johnson                    Soares                       Rodriguez 

Jones                         Tadic

Little                         Valery**** 

McCarthy                Van Dijk 
                                    

McQueen                 Yoshida         

Mugabi 

Olamola                               

Reed                                    

Seager                                 

Sims                                      

Slattery

Targett                                

Willard

Wood

*Bakary arrived at Southampton in April 2014.  He is not English and I cannot determine when first arrived in England, but assuming it was before August 2013, he would count as association trained in England.  He becomes club trained for Southampton in April 2017—so not this season.

** Hojbjerg would young enough for the B List this season, but has not been with the club long enough so he will never be eligible for the B list.

***Lewis arrived in the summer of 2015 so he becomes club trained in 2018 and B list eligible in 2017.

****Valery is French and arrived at Southampton in the Summer of 2015 so he will not be club trained until summer of 2018.  He will not be eligible for the B list until the Summer of 2017.  One suspects he will not be playing European Football for us this season.

If we just focus on the A list after eliminating those players who are obviously not going to be on the A list, this is what things look like.

EUROPEAN SQUAD A LIST (AS OF 11/7/16)

Other                                    Association Trained                         Club Trained

Clasie                                    Austin                                                   Gape

Fonte                                    Bertrand                                              Isgrove

Gardos                                 Davis                                                     Stephens

Gazzaniga                            Forster                                                 Turnbull

Hojbjerg                              Long                                                      Ward-Prowse

Martina                               Redmond

Romeu                                 Rodriguez

Soares                                                                                                 

Tadic                                                                    

Van Dijk

Yoshia

That is a total of 23 players with all required home grown slots covered.  In fact, we have five people assigned to the club trained category which is one more than we are likely to use.  This means we have room for three more players who can be of any nationality.  Give that we have to play somewhere between 46 and 68 matches, it would be crazy to go into the season understaffed by three players.  (And this doesn’t even account for the potential demands imposed by the new EFL trophy competition.)

PREMIER LEAGUE SQUAD LIST (AS OF 11/7/16)

Home Grown                                     Other

Austin                                                   Clasie

Bertrand                                              Fonte

Davis                                                     Gardos

Forster                                                 Gazzaniga

Gape                                                     Martina

Isgrove                                                 Romeu

Long                                                      Soares

Redmond                                            Tadic

Rodriguez                                            Van Dijk

Stephens                                             Yoshida

Turnbull

Ward-Prowse

Thus, for Premier League purposes, we have twelve home grown players and 10 other players for a total of 22 players who would have to be registered on the 25 man Premier League roster in order to be eligible to play.  (Hojbjerg is an under-21 player for Premier League purposes and does not count against the squad limit.)  Obviously, we have more flexibility than that because it is unlikely all four of Gape, Turnbull, Stephens, and Isgrove are in our plans for this season.  On the other hand, we could put all four of them on the Premier League squad but leave one off the Europa squad and then buy three more players who would be eligible for both competitions.  Or would could leave all four of them off the Premier League squad and include three of them on the Europa squad.  That would give us openings for seven more players, four of whom could not play in the Europa League. 

I will assume that we are going to have the same roster for both competitions—aside from the extra Premier League slot created by Hojbjerg’s age.  This means we need three more players who need not be home grown.    Ignoring the four younger club trained players, this is how we stand by positions:

GK:         2

LB           2

CB           4

RB           2

DM         3 (4 if we count Reed)

CM         2

AM/S    5

There is some arbitrariness to where I categorized players.  I put Davis and Ward-Prowse into the CM category but Redmond and Tadic into the AM/S category.

WHAT DO WE NEED

Aside from Goalkeeper, we don’t look like we are particularly short in any position, but more depth is necessary given the games that will need to be played.  In the following discussion I use the players’ ages as of 1 July 2016.

GOALKEEPERS

Obviously, we need another backup goalkeeper.  We cannot go into a Premier League season with only one.  In my February post I said that it was time to sign Forster to a long term contract.  That was done but we still have a problem.  I am willing to assume the club views Gazzaniga as a satisfactory backup.  Is an under-21 goal keeper a good enough back up for him?  I doubt it, but I don’t know who would be willing to sign to be our third goalkeeper.  In a strange way, the injury to Forster helped last year because it meant we could get a quality third goalkeeper for the season.

DEFENDERS

It is not clear that we are strong enough at right back.  Supposedly we are looking at Jeremy Pied for this position.

Back in February I said that we needed to strengthen at center back unless Stephens was ready or we were sure about Gardos.  Nothing that has happened since changes my view.  It would be crazy to assume Fonte is not doing to start dropping in quality due to his age (and the lack of a summer break).  Gardos was undoubtedly signed thinking he would be good enough to start for us.  Maybe he is, but with all his injuries there is simply no way to know.  The younger home grown center backs do not seemed to have progressed to the point where they can be counted on, but with the new manager and the supposed increased focus on youth development, maybe the plan is to give them a chance this season.

Nevertheless, I would try to sign a high quality young center back and let him know that he would get a chance to compete for a starting job and, in any case, squad rotation would mean that he would get 10 to 20 starts depending on how far we progress in the various competitions.

Left back appears to be in fine shape.

MIDFIELD

We seem to be set in the midfield.  We probably will not have anyone as good as Wanyama on one of his good days, but we probably will not have anyone who passes as poorly as he does on his bad days.

That being said Romeu is something of a problem.  He is 24 but he was only signed to a three year contract.  Unless the plan is to use him for three years and let him leave on a free, his contract needs to be extended this summer.  If he doesn’t want to resign, better to find that out now and takes steps to replace him.

Steven Davis is also a potential problem because he 31—old by midfielder standards.  He was signed to a contract extension which means that he is scheduled to be here until age 34.  He is, perhaps, more likely to start fading now than Fonte since he has to run around so much more. I have to assume the club has decided that he is worth the risk and that they will deal with any aging issues by playing him less. 

ATTACKERS

This is the biggest changed area since my last post.  We have lost three players here (not counting Rameriz) but have only signed one replacement.

I guess the club considers Austin to be a replacement signing since he was signed in contemplation of Pelle leaving this summer.  He is signed until 2020 when he will be 30.  His fitness situation is also uncertain.  That suggests that someone else might be needed.

After last season, the club appears to intend to rely on Long as the primary striker.  However, he is 29 and only has two years left on his relatively high wage contract.  It seems unlikely that he would be signed to a long contract extension.  A shorter extension might be a good idea but I don’t know that it would make sense for Long to sign one.  (Long might be headed for Major League Soccer at some point.  He would be a perfect player for MLS if he can retain most of his pace and endurance.)  As it is, Long’s contract expires when he is 31.  He will likely be showing some effects of aging by then.

Rodriguez is also a question mark.  We do not know whether he will be good enough.

Tadic is 27 years old and his contract expires in 2018.  I would think the club would want to resign him.  Perhaps he doesn’t want to sign a new contract but if that is the case he is worth a lot more if sold this year than next.

Redmond is 22 and signed through 2021.  We will just have to see how he turns out, but clearly the club is counting on him heavily this year.  I don’t think it is reasonable to view him as Mane’s replacement but maybe that is what he is.  I liked it better when I thought we might see both of them on the field at the same time.

WHAT DO WE NEED?

If February I listed our needs thusly:

A back up goal keeper NOT YET DONE

A centerback who is better than Yoshida and younger than Fonte NOT YET DONE

A right back who can challenge Soares for playing time NOT YET DONE (unless Martina now qualifies)

A midfielder who can take over Steven Davis’ role and an extension to Romeu’s or Wanyama’s contract (or both) PARTIALLY DONE BECAUSE HOJBJERG MAY QUALIFY

A replacement for Pelle and Mane—if they are not going to stay for another year  NOT YET DONE

An attacking winger DONE

From my February perspective, the club still has a lot of work to do.  On the other hand, I don’t really feel like the team is that far off where it needs to be to compete.  However, if we want to qualify for the Champions League we are not there.  That being said, other than at goalkeeper I think it would be a mistake to buy anyone who cannot improve the starting 11—or at least might be able to do so.  We have room for four players and we need to fill all those slots.