What the new Premier League loan regulations mean for Everton

The Premier League has warned all its clubs that they only have one more season to change how they loan out their players to other teams to get in line with FIFA’s new loan regulations or else face some severe consequences.

The Times reports that the proposals have been ratified and that all clubs worldwide must be in compliance by the 2020-21 season. The new number will be only six to eight players, which will change how youngsters are loaned out to lower league clubs as well as other sides abroad. Additionally, it will mean clubs might cut ties with players and sell them outright sooner than they would have in the past.

To put it quite bluntly, this barely affects twelve of the Premier League teams who have fewer than ten players loaned out. Everton will experience some discomfort somewhere in between the two ends of that spectrum, but this will have a massive impact on Chelsea and Manchester City.

Chelsea have been (in)famously stockpiling talent for years now, and it is entirely possible to build a world-class squad from all the players that have gotten away from Stamford Bridge too. This season Chelsea have loaned out 39 players, with Manchester City sending out 28. Surprisingly in that bracket are Wolverhampton Wanderers, with 27 Wolves players loaned out.

The new FIFA regulations were part of an objective that focused on ensuring that te player loan system was for youth development purposes, and not to commercially exploit the players for profit. This was a veiled threat at teams like Chelsea who made £139 million in transfer fees by selling just five players they signed up as youngsters: Nemanja Matic, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Ryan Bertrand and Nathan Aké. Millions more were made on a host of other players.

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For the Blues, going forward this could mean deadweight players like Ashley Williams, Yannick Bolasie, Cuco Martina and others could be sold outright, leaving the quote for younger players like Joe Williams, Callum Connolly and Antonee Robinson to continue to get competitive game time at other teams.

Additionally, the Toffees could take advantage of Chelsea’s misfortune here if they have to start selling off some of their loan players - Kurt Zouma and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are two particular players that should be of much interest to Everton.