One easy way to make the Premier League a bit more competitive

This has been rolling around in my head for a year or two. I have no idea why it came to mind tonight, but here we go.

Several years ago, the NCAA cut down on football squad size and limited scholarships for the top level colleges. Why? Because several schools not only recruited the players they wanted, but also those players they didn't want but didn't want their conference rivals to get. It worked … after a fashion. And then, against all odds, the NCAA did something smart.

The same situation has existed in the Premier League for a number of years. Each summer, Man U, Chelsea, Man City, Man United, and -- to a lesser degree -- Arsenal and Liverpool, splash out the cash for the big money free agents. The two biggest bankrolls -- Citeh and The Undead -- regularly find themselves with five or six top class strikers in their squads, all of them competing against young strikers bought up at bargain wages as "future prospects." So there they are -- the "big clubs" -- with a disproportionate load of talent and a HUGE payroll. What to do?

Loan, that's what. If you're Chelsea, you can keep your rivals from signing a top flight striker you don't really need, loan that player out to a club not likely to challenge you for European slots, and take his wages off your payroll since the borrowing club will do that. There's an added bonus also. When you play the club you loaned the player to, they have to sit him out when you meet. Five or so years ago, the Premier League featured two goalkeepers on loan from Manchester U. What this meant was that Unite and ONLY United were guaranteed to play four league matches against 2nd choice keepers. They won the league that season.

So, here's what the Premier League can do. There's already a squad size restriction in place. Just pass a rule that a Premier League club cannot loan out a player to another Premier League club. They can loan him to a second or third tier club, but not to a top flight club. Players are not likely to sign with Chelsea if they know that they're likely to be either idle or loaned out to Blackpool. Ipso bleedin' facto.

There's a Spaniard in the Works [RIP JWL] in the form of Man City, however. Their tie in with professional clubs in the US and Australia allows them not only to spread players out, but also to cheat the "domestic player rule." So this isn't perfect, but think about what would happen if all clubs in the Premier League looked only after filling their squad with players they had signed. Reduced sized squads filled with unhappy players who can't get the pitch time necessary to get their bonuses.

What do you think?

 

Update: at the close of the summer transfer period, Chelsea had THIRTY-TWO players out on loan.
http://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-chelsea/leihspieler/verein/631

Certainly somebody somewhere has to see this as an abuse of the system.