It is a mark of how Manchester City's approach to their squads and academy that they will barely need to spend any time thinking about incoming loan restrictions.
FIFA announced changes to the game on Thursday aimed at developing young players and preventing hoarding from the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign. These include maximums of: one year for any single loan, three players to any single club, and eight players loaned out and eight loaned in at any given time, scaling down to six at most by the 2024/25 season. Players that are 21 or younger will not count towards those limits, nor will club-trained players.
Not so long ago, that could have spelled trouble for the Blues.
A legacy of Manuel Pellegrini's time in charge of the first team was that Pep Guardiola inherited a bunch of senior players that he did not want given his preference for working with a small group; Joe Hart, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony and Eliaquim Mangala were among the established members of the squad that were loaned out in the new manager's first transfer window.
There was also City Football Group business to take into account, with players such as Aaron Mooy, Luke Brattan, Anthony Caceres, Geronimo Rulli and Pablo Mari still counting as on the books despite not being close to the City first team.
The summer of 2017 brought a major overhaul both of the first-team squad and of the way Txiki Begiristain began to treat promising young players. A number were loaned out, but City also began recouping considerable fees for academy prospects rather than sending them on loans, with Mooy, Enes Unal, Olivier Ntcham and Jadon Sancho all going for decent sums. With 11 first teamers shown the exit door in that window, the number of senior players sent out on loan shrank to just Hart and Mangala.
Guardiola's wish for a small squad and his rotation of players reduces the need for loans because unhappy stars never go that long without getting opportunities to get back into the first team. Raheem Sterling gave an interview in the November international break where he suggested he could be open to a temporary move for more game time, and then was Premier League Player of the Month for December.
For those that do wish to leave, Begiristain has been content to get them off the books when a reasonable fee has come in. Ferran Torres has been the latest example of this with his wish to join Barcelona this month swiftly granted, but many youngsters are now sold on with buyback clauses rather than sent out into what can feel like the endless loan cycle.
A look at City's current list of loanees suggests there is little to be concerned about with the new regulations, especially given club-trained players and Under-21s are exempted. From the list of 10, Patrick Roberts and Marlos Moreno serve as remnants of a time that City have moved beyond rather than current policy and both Yangel Herrera and Pedro Porro have had several clubs interested in signing them permanently.
City would have to watch how many players to send to sister clubs Troyes or Girona in the top league of France and Spain respectively, yet with fewer CFG arrivals and more players being moved on permanently rather than kept on - as well as Guardiola's desire to keep the best young talent supplementing his first team squad - the Blues have already cut themselves down to size in time for new regulations that have plenty of slack left in them.
