Aston Villa reserves and some new Premier League rules

Going backwards again because that is my thing and we are going to start with the reserves team, who won again last night. They beat Portsmouth 2-0 to make it three wins in a row.

Goals from Barry Bannan and Chris Herd put the game to bed and well, what more can you say? We are currently second in the league behind Arsenal who are top on goal difference and you wouldn't be surprised if we won it again.

Winning is a habit and having the younger players coming through used winning is a good thing, because it's something you need to know how to do. Some players don't know how to win and if you can have a group of players coming through, used to winning and having that level of expectation on their shoulders, it can only be good for the future.

New Premier League Rules

When I heard about this last night, I'd just moved from DEFCON 3 to 2 with the wife so didn't really have time to read about it, so I've just done a quick scan and while on the face of it, these are maybe two of the top three or four areas that you'd want the league to be making a few changes, I've just got a feeling that everyone is okay with this, because well, everyone is okay with this.

It also isn't that I don't trust Richard Scudamore since he came out with 39th game blarney, it's that I fancy he likes the publicity and he's not a stupid man, he's going to push something now he can't fail with or he'd be out of a job and this to me, while all good, isn't enough and well, is any club going to be getting their wrists slapped?

Sorry, I should have mentioned what these new rules are. First is that each club will, at the end of every transfer window, have to name a squad of up to twenty-five players, at least eight of which will have to be 'home grown'; registered for at least three seasons at an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16 and 21.

Next and this is a little grey for me at the moment, as all things involving financial matters tend to need a little time, is that each club will have to provide its annual accounts to the Premier League by March 1st every year, and show that it does not have outstanding tax debts, or debts to other clubs. Clubs will also have to prove they can fulfil all fixtures and contractual obligations, and meet all payments due during a season.

If they can't prove that they can fulfil these obligations, then the Premier League is going to impose sanctions on the club, which they would have all signed off on, which will likely mean no more new players, but like I've said, it is still grey for me considering my DEFCON status, so hopefully we can have a little chat about it here and in the forum today and maybe it will become clear.

Rules Schmules

What does it actually mean? Well, I'm going to guess that every Premier League club can meet the player requirement right now. Some, I suspect, will be able to let a player or two go, but not many and seeing squad size isn't limited to 25, just the type of player you can add on afterwards and with the money in the game now, I fancy it's going to make youngsters from overseas that show a little more potential a lot more expensive.

I fancy also that the value of some of our players have just increased quite significantly and players like Bannan and Herd will be worth a little more than they were yesterday. Nice for the business this as we are very much in a position of strength now.

On the financial rules, these need time, but every club has been given enough time to read these and they know when they have to have their books and house in order, so I can't see any of them putting themselves in a position that is going to hinder progress.

All in all, a good thing, but they've got to tackle salaries sooner rather than later. Right, coffee time and something from John later.

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