Predicting NUFC's Premier League and Champions League squad lists for 2023/24

If Eddie Howe is to be believed then Newcastle's incoming transfer business for 2023/24 is complete, injuries permitting, though there could be some senior departures from St. James' Park before the window closes on Friday the 1st of September at 11 p.m. BST.

When the window closes, Newcastle will have to register their 25-man Premier League squad list, which will be set in stone until the January transfer window opens on Monday the 1st of January, 2024.

The rules for Premier League squad registration are as follows:

Each squad must contain no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the "Home Grown Player" (HGP) criteria. The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be "Home Grown".

What is a Home-Grown Player?

A "Home-Grown Player" means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).

Rules on U21 players

Under-21 players are eligible over and above the limit of 25 players per squad. For the 2023/24 campaign, Under-21 players will have been born on or after 1 January 2002.

With those in mind, here's how Newcastle's squad is looking a week or so before the final list is due to be sent to the Premier League:

Slot	Player	Primary Position	Status
1	Nick Pope	GK	Home Grown
2	Martin Dúbravka	GK	Non-Home Grown
3	Loris Karius	GK	Non-Home Grown
4	Mark Gillespie	GK	Home Grown
5	Kieran Trippier	RB	Home Grown
	Tino Livramento	RB	Under-21 (Home Grown)
6	Javier Manquillo	RB	Non-Home Grown
7	Emil Krafth	RB	Non-Home Grown
8	Fabian Schär	CB	Non-Home Grown
9	Jamaal Lascelles	CB	Home Grown
10	Sven Botman	CB	Non-Home Grown
11	Paul Dummett	CB	Home Grown
12	Dan Burn	LB	Home Grown
13	Matt Targett	LB	Home Grown
	Lewis Hall	LB	Under-21 (Home Grown)
14	Sandro Tonali	CM	Non-Home Grown
15	Sean Longstaff	CM	Home Grown
16	Bruno Guimarães	CM	Non-Home Grown
	Lewis Miley	CM	Under-21 (Home Grown)
17	Joelinton	CM	Non-Home Grown
18	Joe Willock	CM	Home Grown
	Elliot Anderson	CM	Under-21 (Home Grown)
19	Miguel Almirón	RW	Non-Home Grown
20	Jacob Murphy	RW	Home Grown
21	Matt Ritchie	RW	Home Grown
22	Alexander Isak	ST	Non-Home Grown
23	Callum Wilson	ST	Home Grown
24	Harvey Barnes	LW	Home Grown
25	Anthony Gordon	LW	Home Grown

All 25 slots are taken, but Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, Lewis Miley, and Elliot Anderson do not need to be registered this season due to their young ages, though Livramento and Anderson will need to be registered in 2024/25.

Of the remaining senior players, 14 are classed as "Home Grown" with 11 being "Non-Home Grown", meaning the club is very well set in terms of its home-grown ratio.

As it stands, Newcastle do not need to get rid of any players for Premier League squad reasons, as every senior player aside from Ryan Fraser, Isaac Hayden, and Jeff Hendrick, who are all excluded anyway, can be registered for 2023/24.

Things are quite different for Champions League squad registration, though, and it is currently impossible for Newcastle to register all 29 of the above players who can play in the Premier League to feature in Europe this season.

If you read UEFA's rules, you can see why:

When do clubs submit their squads?

Every club must submit two lists of players, including details such as shirt number, date of birth and nationality. In addition, the lists must include confirmation by the club's doctor that all players have undergone the requested medical examination. List A needs to be submitted to the relevant association to be verified, validated and forwarded to UEFA by 24:00 CET on Monday 4 September. The same process applies to List B (more details below), which must be submitted no later than 24:00 CET the day before each match.

Who can be on List A?

No club can have more than 25 players on List A during the season, of whom at least two must be goalkeepers.

As a minimum, eight of those 25 places are reserved exclusively for 'locally trained players' and no club may have more than four 'association-trained players' listed among those eight places. If a club have fewer than eight locally trained players in their squad, then the maximum number of players on List A is reduced accordingly.

What's a 'locally trained player'?

There are two categories:

1. Club-trained players who were on a club's books for three entire seasons (i.e. the period between the first and last official match of the relevant national championship) or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.

2. Association-trained players who were on another club's books in the same association for three entire seasons (i.e. the period between the first and last official match of the relevant national championship) or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.

What is List B?

A player may be registered on List B if he is born on, or after, 1 January 2002 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA – or for a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be submitted if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years without interruption.

The key section here relates to the eight players who must be "locally trained", with four of these needing to be "club-trained".

Newcastle have just four club-trained players in the Premier League squad we listed above: Paul Dummett, Sean Longstaff, Elliot Anderson, and Lewis Miley.

These four players must be registered on "List A" if we want to have a full allocation of 25 players on that list, even though Anderson and Miley were born after the 1st of January, 2002 and could be put on "List B" but still take part.

Either way, this means that four senior players who can be registered in the Premier League squad will be unable to be registered on List A for the Champions League.

Here's how we'd pick the Champions League squad if submission was required today:

Slot	Player	Primary Position	Status
1	Nick Pope	GK	Association-trained
2	Martin Dúbravka	GK	Non-locally trained
3	Loris Karius	GK	Non-locally trained
4	Kieran Trippier	RB	Association-trained
5	Tino Livramento	RB	Association-trained
6	Fabian Schär	CB	Non-locally trained
7	Jamaal Lascelles	CB	Association-trained
8	Sven Botman	CB	Non-locally trained
9	Paul Dummett	CB	Club-trained
10	Dan Burn	LB	Association-trained
11	Matt Targett	LB	Association-trained
12	Lewis Hall	LB	Association-trained
13	Sandro Tonali	CM	Non-locally trained
14	Sean Longstaff	CM	Club-trained
15	Bruno Guimarães	CM	Non-locally trained
16	Lewis Miley	CM	Club-trained
17	Joelinton	CM	Non-locally trained
18	Joe Willock	CM	Association-trained
19	Elliot Anderson	CM	Club-trained
20	Miguel Almirón	RW	Non-locally trained
21	Jacob Murphy	RW	Association-trained
22	Alexander Isak	ST	Non-locally trained
23	Callum Wilson	ST	Association-trained
24	Harvey Barnes	LW	Association-trained
25	Anthony Gordon	LW	Association-trained

This 25-man squad contains four "club-trained" players, 12 "association-trained" players, and nine "non-locally trained" players. Mark Gillespie, Javier Manquillo, Emil Krafth, and Matt Ritchie would miss out from the 29-man Premier League squad.

Gillespie, as he's the weakest of our four goalkeepers and is not club-trained despite being from the region.

Manquillo, as he's a non-locally trained player and is currently third-choice at right-back. He might well leave before the 4th of September anyway.

Krafth, as he's a non-locally trained player and is not expected to return from injury until late October at the earliest. We'll be halfway through the group stage at that point.

Ritchie, simply because he's the weakest of our midfield and forward options in terms of what he provides on the pitch. We'd hope he'd still be in and around the squad on Champions League matchdays due to what he brings off the pitch, though!

Do you agree with where we've landed? And do you think we have enough to compete on both fronts?

It's certainly the strongest squad we can remember having for quite some time, and we all know how capable Howe is of coaching players to achieve previously unseen performance levels.

Roll on next Thursday for the draw!