25+8

Before going into discussions about who we need to buy and who we will sell, we need to first examine how next year's new Premier League squad limit and homegrown quotas will affect our team.

All teams will be limited to 25 first team players, and 8 of those players must be homegrown. The definition of a homegrown player is someone who has been trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English or Welsh professional system.

Arsene talked about how ludicrous this limit is, but we're set up well enough to cover this.

Homegrown Players:

Cesc Fabregas

Theo Walcott

Denilson

Aaron Ramsey

Alex Song

Johan Djourou

Kieran Gibbs

Sol Campbell

Nicklas Bendtner

Vito Mannone

If need be, we can use a plethora of Reserve squad players to fill out the homegrown quota, but that's not going to be a problem.

I expect the above 10 players to be in the Arsenal First Team Squad next year. If that's the case, we have slots for 15 more players.

Definites:

Abou Diaby

Bacary Sagna

Thomas Vermaelen

Samir Nasri

Robin van Persie

Andrey Arshavin

Emmanuel Eboue

Marouane Chamakh

Tomas Rosicky

Most Likely:

Eduardo

Gael Clichy

Maybes:

Carlos Vela

Armand Traore

Lukasz Fabianski

Discounting the Maybes, we only have four open slots for a First Team place. And that doesn't include a No. 1 Goalkeeper, a position we definitely need to strengthen.

My point is, unless we ship out some players, we will not be able to sign as many players as people would like. It's a balancing act. I could definitely see Vela, Traore, and/or Fabianski being shipped out, but I didn't even factor that into my thinking in terms of the overall squad.

I'm unsure if Eduardo is going to stay, while Gael Clichy's name is being bandied about with Barcelona. If they leave, we have more players to juggle.

That's not to mention the possibility that Jack Wilshere being promoted to the First Team, William Gallas (hopefully) staying, and Szczesny returning to fight for the third choice keeper position.

In other words, people expecting major surgery should temper their expectations. This new rule is going to require a balancing act.