The Rumour

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is set to hijack Kyle Naughton’s £7 million move from Sheffield United to Aston Villa.

Hughes has put the Blades defender at the top of his wanted list, says the Daily Star Sunday.

The England Under-21 star has emerged as one of the brightest talents outside the Premier League.

The Source: (tribalfootball.com)

The Analysis

Impressive 20 year old right back Kyle Naughton burst onto the scene at Bramall Lane last season and hasn’t looked back. The attack minded full back has been linked with a myriad of clubs and Sir Alex Ferguson is said to be a big admirer of the Sheffield born lad but now it appears that Mark Hughes may be leading the chase for the England Under 21 player.

With the very real possibility that the Premier League will impose some sort of homegrown quota system, although not perhaps the 6+5 rule, many managers are deciding to bring in more English youngsters and the Man City boss appears keen on doing likewise.

Kevin Blackwell will be loathed to lose the youngster but at the same time would greatly benefit from the cash injection from such a sale and may not wish to stand in the way of the player’s progression.

The Likelihood

Naughton to join Man City: I think Kyle may opt for another season learning his trade and trying to go one better and getting his hometown side promoted to the top tier.

Get a free £10 bet on Man City by joining William Hill now.

Premier League clubs have agreed, in principle, to support a Quota system for home-grown players.
Proposals for developing domestic talent will be discussed further by clubs next month and a new system could be introduced for the 2010/11 season.
The most likely outcome is that the Premier League will adopt the rules the Football League will use next season.
From August, Football League clubs will have to name at least four home-grown players in their match-day squad.
In this system any player who has been registered domestically for at least three years before their 21st birthday is classed as home grown, so for example Cesc Fabregas would be a ‘home-grown’ Arsenal player.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter wants to bring in a global ’6+5′ rule, which would mean each side would be required to have at least six players eligible to compete for the country in which the league is based. (BBC Sport)

Now the initial thought i had on hearing this news is that it must be good for the game and it’s hard to find the negatives in an initiative that encourages the growth and development of homegrown talent, but is it really that simple?

What it could simply lead to is a marked increase in scouting abroad for talent under the age of 17 so that these foreign based players get to these shored in time to be able to complete the three years needed to classify as ‘homegrown’, this could in turn lead to an influx of talent that at age 16/17 looked promising but turns out to have been a calculated risk gone wrong.

Clubs will now have to do the math and work out what is the bigger gamble. To bring through talent born in the country and the costs that incurs versus bringing in foreign talent (and remember in most countries in Europe clubs can not tie down a player with a formal contract until age 17, a rule that is not quite the case in the UK) and bringing through the clubs academy system.

Personally i feel in the long run it can only assist English born talent by making it good sense to keep hold of their local kids that little bit longer as they are now in many ways a necessity, even if it means simple being named amongst the subs bench to make up that Quota that still brings them that little bit closer to breaking into the first team proper.

Sepp Blatter’s 6+5 rule is one that is likely to get short shrift as it requires that these ‘homegrown’ talents under his specifications have to be eligible to play for the country the league is based and that would of course become more of an issue. For instance a quick scan at this weekends line-ups would show the following teams would have the following balance to them in terms of adhering to such a rule.

Man United’s starting eleven versus Wigan: Includes Three players eligible to play for the English national team.

Similarly Liverpool’s eleven for the game at Upton Park included just two such players. In the battle between Arsenal and Chelsea the line-ups included 2 and 3 respectively. So one can see how the more archaic law put forward from serial bad idea maker Blatter is always likely to come up against big opposition whereas the more reasoned approach set to come into operation, perhaps as early as 2010/11 is one that could well be given the stamp of approval.

So where do you stand on the whole homegrown quota? Do you see it as a necessary evil or something that irks you?

Get a free £10 bet on your team by joining William Hill now.