The ‘FA Home Grown Player Rule’ adopted by the Women’s Super League mandates that in each 25-woman squad there must be at least 8 players who have been registered with an English/Welsh club for three years before the end of the season in which they turn 21.

Embed from Getty Images

That equates to effectively a third of the entire squad, so it should come as no surprise that teams who utilise their home grown players as foundational building blocks are the same ones that occupy the top spots in the league. Of course they are also the richest and most high-profile clubs – which speaks to the vicious circle at the elite levels of the WSL – the more Lionesses you have, the more money you earn, the better you are and so on.

Let’s review the home grown players registered (as far as we know) at each of the ‘big four’ WSL teams – sorted by minutes played most to least:

Arsenal: Alessia Russo, Beth Mead, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Katie Reid, Taylor Hinds, Chloe Kelly, Leah Williamson, Naomi Williams

Chelsea: Millie Bright, Keira Walsh, Hannah Hampton, Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze, Niamh Charles, Lauren James, Becky Spencer

Man City: Laura Blindkilde-Brown, Alex Greenwood, Lauren Hemp, Gracie Pryor, Grace Clinton, Khiara Keating, Laura Coombs, Naomi Layzell

Man Utd: Maya Le Tissier, Jess Park, Ella Toone, Leah Galton, Gabbie George, Safia Middleton-Patel, Millie Turner, Kayla Rendell

(NB: This does not include players who have unknown home grown status, say for example, Kim Little who joined Arsenal at 18)

This data suggests that the best teams have at least 4-6 key players with home grown status. In practice this means that they can add talent and depth from abroad whilst rarely encountering issues making the regulatory quota.

Embed from Getty Images

Now let’s move on to the players that we believe have home grown status at the Albion:

Brighton: Maisie Symonds, Caitlin Hayes, Fran Kirby, Sophie Baggaley, Bex Rayner, Hannah Poulter, Emilie Gay

Only 7? Well yes, because Michelle Agyemang would have been de-registered in the January window, so the club either registered another young home grown player unannounced or they could also have opted to reduce the size of their squad to 24 (also permitted). Not an ideal situation either way – and it gets slightly more egregious when you realise that Emilie Gay doesn’t actually need to be registered anyway because of her age – she’s just 17 years old.

So Brighton have 6 home grown-eligible players on their roster that must be registered. Symonds is exactly what the club needs, a starter you can build a spine around with years ahead of her. Hayes is an intriguing one, she’s not getting minutes at the moment and a move back to Celtic seems inevitable, whether it be sooner or later. Kirby is winding down her career and does pick up injuries here and there – if she can play at least half of all league fixtures then that’s a positive. Baggaley and Rayner are very much backups and the latter has also been troubled by injuries throughout her stint at the club. Poulter is the third choice goalkeeper behind Baggaley so it seems likely that she never pulls the gloves on for a league fixture this season.

This is not a comment on the work ethic, attitude or skill of these players, it is simply evidence that Brighton need to focus on a transfer strategy that brings in key home grown-eligible talent who play regularly and contribute. Only then can they augment and improve the team by looking outside of English/Welsh football.

With that established – Part Two (released soon) – will aim to identify players that Brighton could add to their squad in order to start building a long-term strategy around a core of home grown talent.

Embed from Getty Images