The transfer window is closed, which means it’s time to submit official 25-man squad lists to both the Premier League and to UEFA for the Champions League. The former isn’t due for another couple weeks it looks like, but today we have the latter confirmed by the official Chelsea website, even.
In years past, this exercise would almost always present some challenge in terms of trying to fit into the maximum-17 non-homegrown (non-HG) players requirement, but in the current paradigm, that’s not that much of a challenge. Even with the excess number of players at center back and left back, we had no difficulty in meeting those criteria — although we are at the maximum now whereas last year we had only 14 non-HG players registered.
The rules in the Champions League remain the same in terms of “List B” (i.e. Academy-trained players under 21) and in terms of making the extra distinction between club-trained and association-trained homegrown players (4 spots reserved for each).
So, here’s how Chelsea’s 2020-21 Champions League squad shapes up:
non-HG (17): Alonso, Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Caballero, Emerson, Giroud, Havertz, Jorginho, Kanté, Kovačić, Mendy, Pulisic, Rüdiger, Silva, Werner, Ziyech, Zouma
club-trained (3): Abraham, Christensen, Tomori
association-trained (1): Chilwell
list B (4): Gilmour, Hudson-Odoi, James, Mount
Or, if you’re a visual learner: