Premier League players: Which club use none and who uses it the most?

There are few better feelings as a football fan than watching a player, developed by your club’s youth coaches, make his debut and establish himself in the first team.

On October 30, Manchester United marked the 87th anniversary of having a Homegrown player in every matchday team with their 5-2 Carabao Cup win. Leicester City. From Tom Manley and Jackie Wassall in 1937 to the current crop of talent at United’s Carrington training ground, developing young players is a central tenet of their identity.

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Since the Class of 92 – United’s most successful academy, which included David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes among others – formed the core of Sir Alex Ferguson’s three-decade dynasty, the outlook on player development in English football has changed significant.

While local academy graduates hold a special place in fans’ hearts, domestic players – those who have spent three years at the club between the ages of 15 and 21, according to the CIES Football Observatory – can be signed from anywhere in the world.

It’s not just in the transfer market when the richest clubs can flex their muscles; it also sweeps talent at the youth level. Liverpoolwhich ranks second in percentage of minutes played by players from the locality Premier League this season, they are not only excellent in developing their academy graduates, but have been equally successful in snapping up young talent from other clubs.

Harvey Elliott is among the shining examples of why clubs like Liverpool ‘poach’ talent from other clubs. Just months after Elliott became the youngest player in the Premier League (at the time) with Fulham in 2019, Liverpool signed the childhood fan for a 2021 court-set fee of around £4 million ($5.1 million).

Liverpool extended this approach with Conor Bradley, Ben Doak (signed from Celtic and now on loan at Middlesbrough) and Bobby Clark (now at Red Bull Salzburg), who spent time at Birmingham City and Newcastle before joining Liverpool for £1.5m in 2021, among others. It’s no surprise, then, that when combined with academy graduates like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Jarell QuansahLiverpool qualified so much for minutes played by home players.

As did Liverpool, who signed Bradley from Northern Irelandof Dungannon Swifts in 2019, Brighton — who are in the top three for percentage of minutes played by players developed by the club this season — are adept at buying young talent in more obscure markets. Republic of Ireland International Evan Ferguson joined the academy after signing from Irish outfit Bohemians and so counts in these figures, but Julio Enciso, Simon Adingra or Moses Caicedo (who left for Chelsea in 2023 for a British record £115m) don’t because they hadn’t spent enough time at Brighton between their 15th and 21st birthdays.

Due to clubs shopping in different markets for young talent such as South America, the overall share of minutes given to domestic players in the Premier League is decreasing. These players are often required to spend a period on loan at another European club or become senior internationals before earning enough points to receive a work permit.

As football becomes increasingly globalised, the definition of ‘home’ is constantly changing. Manchester United, who have led the league in the use of domestic players for back-to-back seasons, have long been adept at signing players from abroad at academy level.

In 2020, Alejandro Garnacho signed from Atletico Madrid in The League at United’s academy and has since made over 100 appearances for the club and become a full international for Argentina. Jonny Evans, 36, who developed at United’s center of excellence in Belfast before officially joining the club’s academy in 2004, is considered a home run. Most recently, they poached promising Denmark youth international Chido Obi-Martin, 16, from Arsenal, who will factor in those stats if he breaks through.

These investments make sense on and off the field. Thanks to PSR, academy graduates (or players signed for small fees as youngsters from other clubs) are often the club’s most valuable players as they can be sold for a significant or pure profit. There are several clubs whose sales of academy graduates from 2022-23 have seen a significant drop in the percentage of minutes for domestic players this year.

Harry Kanewho left Tottenham Hotspur to join Bayern Munich in 2023 is the most high-profile departure of recent seasons, but Spurs have also sold first teams. Oliver Skipp and Japheth Tanganga. As a result, their percentage of minutes played by domestic players has dropped from 13.5% in 2022-23 to just 0.8% this season.

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This trend is reflected with Wolverhampton Wandererswho have loaned academy products Hugo Bueno and Nathan Fraser to Feyenoord and Zulte Waregem respectively for the season. like wolves West Ham they are yet to play a home player this season, a year removed from the sale Declan Rice TO Arsenal.

Perhaps clubs like Wolves, currently 19th in the Premier League, are less likely to take a risk on an academy product. The three sides languishing outside the bottom three – Leicester City, Everton and Town of Ipswich — are also among the clubs that have used the fewest players in the country.

In a relegation battle, managers may be more likely to turn to their tried and tested top talent to steer them away from danger rather than an academy youngster, as evidenced by the minute quota for domestic players at Luton town and Burnley last season.

On the surface, Southampton and The crystal palace it might seem anomalous in this regard, but their home players are some of the most experienced. Adam LallanaAged 36, he counts as one after graduating from Southampton’s academy in 2006, but has since made almost 300 Premier League appearances and played 34 times for England.

The same can be said of the Crystal Palace full-back Nathaniel ClyneThe 33-year-old, who broke through at the south London club in 2008 before spending time at several other top teams and won 14 caps for England. Even Tyrick Mitchell25 years old, he is an established top player with 142 league appearances for Palace and two caps for the Three Lions.

However, Brentford and Fulham are closer to the race for the top four than the bottom three, proving that home players are not essential to success. Brentford disbanded their academy in 2016, and until it was re-introduced in 2022, they did not have a traditional pathway for developing players through the club’s ranks. Technically, they haven’t used a home player since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2021.

During that time, they operated a ‘B’ team, which did not compete in a league format until the start of this season, preferring to arrange matches independently. Therefore, current first team player Ryan Trevittwho was developed in the B system before graduating to the senior side, is not counted in these statistics.

Fulham have built their promising start to the season on players developed elsewhere. In their last league game, a 2-0 away win against Crystal Palace, Ryan Sessegnon he was the only player in the matchday squad to graduate from the west London club’s academy.

Along with Elliott, Sessegnon was considered among the most promising players to come through Fulham’s academy, winning the 2017–18 Championship Player of the Year award aged just 17. Injuries have since halted his career and he joined Fulham this summer after being released. of Tottenham. He is yet to make a league appearance.

Fulham owe part of their strong start to Arsenal’s academy, which has provided Alex Iwobi (28), Reiss Nelson (24) and Emile Smith Rowe (24), who all became important players under Marco Silva.

Had Nelson and Smith Rowe not left for Craven Cottage this summer, Arsenal’s injury problems and lackluster start to the season could have opened the door for more minutes at the Emirates Stadium. As it happened, the young people at home Ethan Nwaneri (17) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (18) have been the main beneficiaries, making a combined 14 first-team appearances this season.

Given Arteta’s reluctance to hand minutes to youngsters in recent seasons (Arsenal only used two under-21s last season), Smith Rowe would likely have been ahead of Nwaneri in the pecking order and therefore played a more prominent role this season.

At Manchester United, Kobbie Mainoo He may have succeeded at some point last season, given his impressive pre-season performances, but an injury crisis in United’s midfield during the busy Christmas period helped accelerate it. Home opportunities are more often born out of necessity than anything else—reflected in the overall lower share of home minutes across the league this early in the season.

As proven in recent seasons, all it takes is an injury. At the expense of an established first team member, perhaps the emergence of your team’s next origin hero is just around the corner.

(Top image: artwork by Eamonn Dalton; Photos via Getty Images)