The homegrown rules in the Premier League continue to be misunderstood. In fact, to even suggest a “homegrown quota” exists would be entirely incorrect, as there is no such thing.

For Arsenal, they have continued, in recent seasons, to field plenty of top English talent. In Thomas Tuchel’s squad this summer he could have several of the current crop in his World Cup squad including: Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Myles Lewis-Skelly and perhaps a return for Ben White.

However, homegrown does not just mean English; foreign stars can also count as homegrown. David Raya (Spain), William Saliba (France) and Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil) are all homegrown players under Premier League rules.

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The Premier League states: “A "Home Grown Player" means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).

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“A club’s Under-21 players are not included on the 25-man squad lists. These players are also eligible to play in the Premier League.”

Further to this: “Each club’s squad must contain no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the "Home Grown Player" (HGP) criteria. The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be "Home Grown".”

This is where the misconception comes from, it is a non-homegrown quota in the Premier League and not a “homegrown quota”. Meaning Arsenal cannot have more than 17 non-homegrown players registered in their 25-man squad.

Currently, they have 13 registered non-homegrown players, although rules are different in UEFA competitions and Noni Madueke, while classified as homegrown in the Premier League after a request made before the end of the 2024/25 season, he is not in European competition.

This appears to leave four slots open. Allowing the Gunners the opportunity this summer for yet more investment in the squad.

UEFA squads are split into two, list A and list B. List A is effectively the main squad, while list B is for “players born on or after January 1, 2004, who have been eligible to play for the club for an uninterrupted period of two years since turning 15.”

Madueke, born March 10, 2002, moved to the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven at 16 years of age and didn’t return to England with Chelsea until 2023, when he was 21.

Saliba sadly does not count as a "locally trained player" either, whereas Raya and Martinelli do, and so he nor Madueke can make up the required eight players on List A. This could therefore factor into any further recruitment in the window.