How will 'player quotas' affect Albion?

Albion blogger Jarrod Hill can see change aplenty at his club and beyond this summer as the Premier League implement new 'player quotas.'

Dearest Albion faithful,

I thought I would write a quick blog on something that has been burning away in my tiny little mind since the transfer rumour mill went into over drive.

It's due to the new rules relating to squad size and formation that will affect our return to the Premier League in August.

The new rules state that clubs can name a preliminary squad of 25 first team players plus players who have come through the ranks at the club and are aged between 16 to 21.

A squad of 25 must also include eight who have been brought through a youth system in Britain, not necessarily ours.

Sound simple so far? Well I suppose it is pretty straight forward, but my confusion arose once I took a quick look at our current first team squad.

If we put aside the youth players who are now professional but have yet to break into our first team to one side and assume they will make up the additional eight to the main 25 man squad, our current squad still stands at 26.

Kiely, Mattock, Olsson, Cech, Barnett, Bednar, Miller, Brunt, Barnes, Daniels, Thomas, Wood, Moore, Dorrans, Reid, Carson, Mulumbu, Zuiverloon, Meite, Tamas, Morrison, Valero, Cox, Jara, Haber and Thorne.

It means we need to either sell or loan out a number of the above, and chairman Jeremy Peace's job this summer will be as much about outward bound players as the ones we need to come in to strengthen our squad.

A number of the fringe players who we want to keep for future development will surely go out on loan and I expect these to include Daniels, Thorne, Haber and Reid.

If they are to go out on loan then that is business that can be concluded at a much later date, but there are a number of players who will need their futures sorting far more quickly.

Barnett, Moore, and Meite are three players who I hope do not appear on our 25 man squad list come August. I don't think any of them are good enough and if we can get any transfer fees for them while removing their expense from our wage bill would be greatly received.

Borja Valero is another player whose Albion future hangs in the balance. Quite obviously a talented player, yet his form during his debut season with us reminded me of someone who was homesick.

By all accounts he has had a wonderful season back in Spain and would command a sizeable transfer fee should we receive any interest.

So if we managed to sell or loan out the players above, it would leave boss Roberto Di Matteo with enough room for incoming players but hopefully with some additional funding through transfer fees as well.

The truth is Jeremy Peace could be negotiating as many as 15 transfers this summer including loans, sales and purchases. It makes you realise how important a role our chairman will play this summer while we prepare for life in the Premier League.

Another important point is that other clubs could be forced into more drastic cuts than us, meaning that players could become available who under the old rules wouldn't have.

I am expecting many clubs to carry out frantic last minute business this summer, as clubs look to offload players nearer the cut off date for naming their respective 25 man squads.

Many pundits have stated that they cannot see the new rules having much of an effect, but I fail to see how it will not. The need to balance your clubs squad while working to more stringent financial controls that more and more clubs look to impose must have an effect somewhere down the line.

Under Peace's stewardship the Albion have remained ambitious while remaining prudent and I wonder if the those years of controlled planning are about to pay dividends.

We have already witnessed our near neighbours Villa placing a number of players who have Premier League experience on the transfer list, while many other top flight clubs have followed suit.

The truth is clubs need to clear the decks to ensure they have space for incoming transfers, especially those that have squads that easily top 25.

Is the playing field levelling in our favour? Do the new rules and financial climate mean we can afford to attract players previously out of our reach?

Only time will tell, but as ever our chairman faces a busy summer, a summer I will watch with great interest.