The registration period has now passed for the beginning of the 2025/26 Europa League season.
Unai Emery has named his initial squad for the upcoming Europa League campaign, including the vast majority of his first-team players, but there’s one noticeable omission.
Clubs in UEFA competitions can have a maximum of 25 players, though only that many if certain parameters are first met. Four spots are for ‘club-trained players’, those registered with the club for at least 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21. Then four places are reserved for those who were with a different team in the same country under the same age and time criteria, dubbed as ‘association-trained players’.
Villa only have one regular first-team starter who qualifies as a club-trained player, following the departure of Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle United. That’s Lamare Bogarde, who can play in a variety of positions but has very much been on the fringes of the team.
Bogarde has been named in Villa’s List B squad due to the fact he under the age of 21 on January 1, 2025. The Dutchman is therefore eligible to play in the Europa League despite not being named in the main List A squad. Got that? Complicated, we know.
Aston Villa’s Europa League squad confirmed
Due to not having enough club-trained players, Villa have only been able to fill 22 of the 25 spots usually available. Emery was forced to omit one of his first-team players from the squad as a result. Last season, January signing Donyell Malen was controversially left out of the Champions League squad. This time around, it’s Ross Barkley missing out on European football.
Goalkeepers: Emi Martinez, Marco Bizot.
Defenders: Andres Garcia, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, Tyrone Mings, Victor Lindelof, Lucas Digne, Ian Maatsen.
Midfielders: Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana, John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Emi Buendia, Harvey Elliott.
Forwards: Donyell Malen, Morgan Rogers, Jadon Sancho, Evann Guessand, Ollie Watkins.
What’s going on with Ross Barkley?
It would have been a difficult decision for Emery to leave out a player last season, but not so much this time around. Barkley, albeit a decent value signing from Luton Town for £5 million last summer, is yet to feature in any of Villa’s matchday squads so far this campaign.
Emery hasn’t spoken about Barkley and his omissions from the squad recently, but it’s understood the former Everton and Chelsea midfielder is suffering from a lack of match fitness after an injury setback in pre-season. Barkley has had to deal with several injury problems since the turn of the year and he’s struggled to shake them off fully.
With the first few Europa League matches in mind, it was rather straightforward to leave out Barkley, then. But it’s more brutal when you consider the fact that the next registration window is after the league phase. That means Barkley is ineligible to play in the competition until Villa make it through to the knockout stages, and that’s not a guarantee.
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