Hi folks, thought I would clarify Homegrown (HG) requirements / issues for the 25-26 season as, with all the chatter about players leaving and joining Liverpool FC, there is a bit of confusion.
For this year (24-25) anyone who was born on or after 1 Jan 2003 is in the U21 squad and we can have as many of those as we like, regardless of where they have previously played football.
Therefore, for the 25-26 season, any players we buy who were born on or after 1 Jan 2004 will not take up a non-HG spot in the squad as they will qualify for the U21s. So players like Jorrel Hato (7 Mar 2006), Dean Huijsen (14 Apr 2005), Jamie Gittens (8 Aug 2004) etc all do not impact on the non-HG quota in the senior squad as they will be classed as U21s. So, keep an eye out for their Date of Birth being 1 Jan 2004 or later.
In terms of our current squad, let’s work out who is HG and who will be next season:
GKs – Kelleher is HG and we all know he’s likely to go. However, Jaros is also HG, having joined us in 2017 at the age of 16. Jaros has had 1 loan in Ireland, but the rest of the time he’s either been in our age group squads or on loan in England.
Gomez and Trent may leave – they are both HG. However, Quansah, who was an U21 this year, will be overage in 25-26 so he will be classed as HG. Although he will likely go, Nat Phillips is also HG. Conor Bradley is also currently U21 but will be overage next year. He joined us in 2019 at the age of 16 and has either played in our age group teams or been on loan in England, so he will also be a HG person next season.
Looking at our on loan players, 2 who have been spoken about recently are Owen Beck and Luke Chambers. Chambers was born in Jun 2004 so will have 1 more year classed as U21, but Beck was born in 2002 so if he rejoins the squad next year as a LB option, he would also be HG.
So, we can say that we will definitely have 3 HG players in GK/ Def – Jaros, Bradley and Quansah – and possibly a 4th in Owen Beck.
Moving on to midfield, Curtis Jones is HG
and Harvey Elliot, who is currently U21, will also be classed as HG next season as he was born in Apr 2003. Tyler Morton is actually older than Harvey Elliot – born in 2002 – so he is already HG.
Even if 1 of them leaves (maybe Morton?) I suspect we will still have 2 HG players in midfield regardless of who we buy. Of course, if Anthony Gordon comes in, that would be 3. Bajcetic coming back doesn’t impact as he was born in Oct 2004, so has 1 more season as U21.
We have no HG attackers and players like Danns, Doak and Rio still have more seasons to go as U21.
So, it’s likely that, even taking into account some mooted transfers and ignoring incomings, we will have at least 6 HG players in our squad. If, say, Gomez and Morton stay as part of the squad, that means that we have 8 HG players. Also, Quansah, Elliot, Jones and Jaros will qualify as club trained too.
So let’s not stress about the nationality/ background of the players we bring in, let’s just get excited about how they will improve an already awesome team who are hopefully reigning champions of at least 1 trophy!
Written by Zeddicus February 25 2025 15:09:21
