Mikel Arteta has issued a passionate plea to the Premier League, begging chiefs to increase the size of matchday squads to protect the mental health of players. The Arsenal boss believes the current rules are outdated given the intense demands on modern footballers and has called for immediate reform to avoid the “avoidable” heartbreak of leaving stars at home.
Arteta has called on the Premier League to urgently revise its rules regarding matchday squad sizes, arguing that the current restrictions are damaging player welfare and squad harmony. Speaking at a press conference, the Arsenal manager made a public appeal to the league’s decision-makers, asking them to align with UEFA’s regulations.
Currently, Premier League clubs are permitted to name a bench of nine substitutes, meaning a total matchday squad of 20 players. In contrast, Champions League rules allow for a bench of up to 12 substitutes, giving managers significantly more flexibility. Arteta believes this discrepancy is illogical given the swelling size of squads required to compete on multiple fronts.
“At the moment, there are two or three players that have to be out of the squad,” he said. “That’s a reality. I cannot change that. These are the rules, hopefully the Premier League next season, instead of 18 outfield players, it will be 20. I beg them from here, like it is in the Champions League, because it’s much better to manage the squad, to maintain the value of the players, to maintain the mental health of the players, because nobody wants to be out of the squad.”
The Spaniard’s frustration stems from the difficult conversations he faces weekly, forced to omit fit and healthy senior professionals simply because the team sheet isn’t long enough. With Arsenal competing for the title, leaving talented players completely out of the fold has become a “reality” he is desperate to change.
Arteta opened up about the emotional toll that the current rules take on both managers and players. He described the “really unique job” of a football manager, which involves the power to transform careers but also the burden of crushing dreams on a weekly basis.
“Every week we have to tell somebody: ‘Tomorrow, you don’t do the job. You’re not even allowed to travel with the team,'” Arteta explained. “Tell me another job that you do that. I cannot go to the kitchen tomorrow and say to two other chefs: ‘Today you don’t cook, just go there and see how they cook or go home’. It’s really tough.”
For Arteta, the act of excluding a player from the travelling party is more than just a tactical decision; it is a psychological blow that tells a player he is being excluded.
“In the end, your decision is clear: I choose another 20 players in front of you, and I think this is something avoidable. Why? Because the demands on games are bigger, so we need bigger squads. So it doesn’t make a lot of sense to restrict that, in my opinion,” he added.
