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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Frank Lampard's £200m summer spending spree could be great news for two Chelsea players

Frank Lampard has avoided a major headache after Chelsea's big spending in the summer transfer window.

And it's in regards to his 25-man squad for the 2020/21 Premier League season.

Each Premier League club can only register 25 players over the age of 21 for that season's first-team matches and of those 25 players, no more than 17 can be non-home grown players.

The most impressive part of Chelsea's transfer window

To fill a squad of 25 players over the age of 21, a team must have at least eight homegrown players.

Homegrown players are classified as having been developed at an academy of a club in the English football pyramid for at least three seasons prior to their 21st birthday - but Under-21 players are eligible over and above the limit of 25 players per squad.

The Blues have bolstered their squad with the signings of Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Malang Sarr, Thiago Silva, Kai Havertz and Edouard Mendy.

However, outgoing players will also prove key.

The departures of Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek - on loan to Aston Villa and Fulham respectively - means two less spaces in the squad as they both qualified as a homegrown player for the Blues and only one of the seven new recruits can fill the void.

Following a £200m+ summer spending spree, Chelsea now have 17 players who do not qualify either as homegrown or under the age of 21, which means no problem for Lampard.

Of the current squad, Jake Clarke-Salter, Fikayo Tomori, Tammy Abraham, Chilwell, Andreas Christensen, Danny Drinkwater, Charly Musonda, and Victor Moses are all over the age of 21 but qualify as homegrown.

Billy Gilmour, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Reece James, Havertz, Mason Mount, and Nathan Baxter are all 21 or under and thus do not come under consideration for the squad rules.

Kepa Arrizabalaga, Willy Caballero and Edouard Mendy can all be included in the group of 17. In defence, Lampard can select Antonio Rudiger, Marcos Alonso, Thiago Silva, Kurt Zouma, Cesar Azpilicueta, Emerson Palmieri and even the forgotten Baba Rahman.

Midfielders Jorginho, N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech can all be picked. As can the forward group of Christian Pulisic, Werner and Olivier Giroud.

With that said, if Lampard names a full 25-man squad then it would be great news for Moses and Drinkwater as they would most likely make the cut - although it's likely they won't be if the Champions League squad is anything to go by.

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