10 surprisingly homegrown players your club could sign

Before Premier League teams begin to re-construct their squads this summer, there’s a constraint to consider: despite 25 squad places up for grabs, the rule book insists that no more than 17 of them can go to overseas players. It's partly – although not exclusively – why Chelsea hastily ditched Fernando Torres, Marko Marin and Marco van Ginkel late in last summer’s window.

The remaining gaps must then be given to homegrown players, or left vacant (hi again, Chelsea), although it’s not always as straightforward as it sounds. To qualify as homegrown, a player must have been trained by a club in England or Wales for a period of three years between the ages of 15 and 21, so while England internationals Eric Dier and Owen Hargreaves don’t/didn’t count, Spaniards Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique would – a useful loophole in a market where young Englishmen carry a London pint-style premium.

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