Everton confirm 23-man squad

Mrs Romero, Sergio's wife, must be pretty gutted as he has been left out of their squad.

If we can have 25 men in the squad what's the logic in leaving out two players and going with 23? The window is shut, they're under contract, wouldn't we look a bit silly if e had an injury crisis and couldn't use them?

Kieran, could it be because of the limit on non-homegrown players?

Interesting to see Cenk in the squad, Carlo obviously rates him above Bolasie. Does anyone know when he is expected to be available again?

Last I heard, it was November, Neil, but he would need to get match fit, so I guess it will be January before he is seen or transferred.

Bolasie openly admitted on Twitter he was gutted not to be included. I don't see the harm in keeping him as an available option, at least. By all accounts, he's certainly worked harder for a place than the likes of Jonas Lössl.

Mike

I may be misunderstanding but I'm pretty sure Bolasie meets the criteria for homegrown. He started playing in the UK aged 16 albeit at non league level. Where is Steve Ferns when I need him? Besic yeah could be a non homegrown issue.

Kieran, Bolasie is classed as English homegrown as he's been here since a baby and had all his education here too. I think I read that he even has a British passport too, even though he was born in France to Congolese parents.

Kristian

That's what I thought so his exclusion seems baffling, almost Koemanesque.

Does the "squad" actually mean anything? If a player is registered with the club surely they can play whenever required?

Bolasie has Richarlison, James, Bernard, Gordon, Nkounkou and Iwobi ahead of him in the pecking order. When put like that, I can see why he's being overlooked.

Cenk is contracted until June 2022, so they will want him fit as back up or coming on as sub, scoring and being sold in January. With better service coming in to him he could prove himself to be a worthy backup to DCL or a shrewd buy for a mid / lower club. I think Carlo and Brands will be already making plans for another forward, most likely Carlo has got his own player in mind and Cenk will be sold.

Bolaise, Besic there probably off January 1st with the majority of the contract paid off. Clubs with injuries will be eager to take them on.

I'm actually astonished Besic is still under contract considering he signed for us 6 years ago now and even in his first year he was never really a true regular, what kind of contract is he on?

I don't think he was ever the worst player, I seem to recall him playing out of his skin around Christmas 2015 and in that League Cup Semi at home to City when he bossed Yaya Toure.

Bolasie, again another one that just never seemed to kick on after his horrible injury, was a good player at Palace but he's not going to work at Everton now obviously.

Jim, We've paid £ 9 230 000 in wages to Mo with his loan clubs chipping in the odd few grand. How he got a 6 year contract is an enduring mystery. Someone in the scouting dept. in 2015 must have thought he was about to blossom into a world beater. I'm not critical of Besic, nice work if you can get it.

Dermot @10, the 'squad' definitely DOES mean something and no, you can't just play a player simply because they are under contract with you. There is a limit of 25 players in any squad under the Homegrown Player Rule which caps non-homegrown players to no more than 17.

The rule was instituted to aid development of players for the national teams and there is too much to go into regarding what is or isn't considered home-grown but I would have thought Bolasie qualified.

In any case, unless something has changed, the limit is 25 not 23 which suggests that the exclusion of Bolasie and Besic means they are really not fancied by the management, or possibly that those spaces are earmarked for future signings.

Am I blind or is Nkounko missing from that list?

"Each club is able to list up to 17 senior players that are not English or Welsh and did not spend a significant period in an English or Welsh academy, plus any number of homegrown players up to a maximum squad size of 25, plus an unlimited number of academy and under-21 players. "

Shane, as Niels is only 19 years of age, there is no requirement to register him.

Peter

"possibly that those spaces are earmarked for future signings." Don't clubs reissue squad lists in the winter transfer window? In which case we wouldn't need to keep spots open unless we are scouring the free agent market. Wilshere, Sturridge etc, I hope not.

Nkounko...under 21 squad

I'm confused. Is Scotland and Northern Ireland no longer a part of the if UK? Have I been in a covid enduced coma and missed a referendum?

I think not registering our players is poor. When Gbamin, a player who has been injured for over a year and is still unavailable for many more weeks is included but Bolasie, a talented but inconsistent player is left out that is just foolish.

Should we have an injury crisis or more likely a Covid crisis then surely having him registered and available is the sensible thing to do.

I can only presume there is some financial restriction on him ie if he plays again we owe 'x' a few hundred thousand. Possibly not trusted and may leek sensitive tacticical information but otherwise it's poor, really poor. He was included in training and preseason so it appears odd, the wrong thing to do in my mind.

More to do with the English football pyramid (which includes Welsh clubs) than the break-up of the UK, Justin.

Thanks but I don't recall there being a change to rules regarding player eligibility. I always read, talked, heard about UK based players. Not specifically English and Welsh.

This is another football rule that goes against real world legality. I'm OK with these rules but I can imagine any number of clubs, players, agents threatening legal action should they disagree.

The reason Bolasie and Besic have been left out is they are not wanted in any way. We can still pick up free agents between now and January, so if we had an injury crisis at left back we could bring in a free agent and utilise one of the 2 vacant slots. If we had named Besic and Bolasie we would lose this flexibility.

We need 8 home grown players and there's 8 British players on there (Coleman doesn't count). Then 4 of them need to be trained at the club, between the ages of 15 and 21. Kenny and Davies obviously qualify. I don't think Holgate and Calvert-Lewin do. So it must be that we need to have two empty spaces to comply with the rule.

If Calvert-Lewin or Holgate qualify as homegrown trained at the club, then it makes no sense to leave Bolasie and Besic out, unless it's to put pressure on them to leave in January or to a country with an open window like the USA.