It was a tightrope which Norwich City had to walk constantly during their Championship title triumph but the Canaries look much better placed to meet homegrown criteria during their return to the EFL.
Daniel Farke was often naming a matchday squad with the minimum of seven homegrown qualified players among his 18 during that 2018-19 campaign - although the rules are less strict in the Premier League.
Failure to do so can see a club called before the Football Association and facing a fine. Among those seven ‘homegrown’ players there must also be one ‘club developed’ player or a team can name only six substitutes. However, the success of City’s academy means that is unlikely to be a problem.
While it was not a consideration for Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Luton, as the homegrown rules do not apply to cup games, the Canaries look to have much more room for manoeuvre to meet that criteria in the Championship - starting at Huddersfield on Saturday.
Ben Gibson, Oliver Skipp, Kieran Dowell and Jordan Hugill all add to the homegrown group, while Irish striker Adam Idah does also qualify now having been with an English or Welsh club for three years prior to his 21st birthday - as he joined Norwich as a 16-year-old.
Idah’s situation illustrates how Tim Krul and Grant Hanley also qualify, with Dutch keeper Krul at Newcastle and Scottish defender Hanley with Blackburn when they were teenagers.
Which means that currently City have 14 players that are considered homegrown in their first team squad, before even considering young prospects such as midfielder Josh Martin, defender Akin Famewo or goalkeeper Daniel Barden.
That may change before the domestic transfer window closes on October 16, with regular transfer speculation surrounding academy products Max Aarons, Todd Cantwell and Ben Godfrey.
Jamal Lewis was the first of the crown jewels to be sold, joining Newcastle in a deal worth an initial £15million, but despite being a Northern Ireland international the left-back was born in Luton so was homegrown qualified.
However the Canaries appear to have a better homegrown balance with Tom Trybull, Mo Leitner and Josip Drmic not included in the squad and looking for moves away and with another non-homegrown player leaving in January when Dennis Srbeny was sold to Paderborn.
HOMEGROWN: Krul, Aarons, Byram, Mumba, Hanley, Gibson, Godfrey, McCallum, Skipp, Dowell, Cantwell, Martin, Hugill, Idah
NON-HOMEGROWN: McGovern, Zimmermann, Klose, Quintilla, Tettey, McLean, Rupp, Vrancic, Sorensen, Sitti, Buendia, Placheta, Stiepermann, Sinani, Hernandez, Pukki
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