Duo out of United squad

Owen Hargreaves and Bebe have been left out of Manchester United's UEFA Champions League squad.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has named a 24-man squad for the group stages of the tournament with Uefa allowing teams to name a 25-man squad.

England international Hargreaves, who has been named in United's 25-man Premier League squad, has been battling with a knee injury for some time with the midfielder making just one appearance in the last two years.

Summer signing Bebe has been left out as Ferguson does not feel he is ready to step up to the first team despite splashing out £7.4million for the Portuguese Under 21 international.

Belgian defender Ritchie De Laet has also been omitted from the squad with the group stages set to get underway later this month.

United are able to add to their squad if they reach the knock-out stages in February.

Man United Champions League squad

Van der Sar, Kuszczak,Neville, Evra, J.Evans, Ferdinand, W.Brown, Smalling, Vidic, O'Shea, Nani, Anderson, Giggs, Park, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Valencia, Gibson, Berbatov, Rooney, Hernandez, Owen, Obertan.

Source: Sky Sports
Date Published: 6 September 2010

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Fair enough, that makes sense so!

- letrip

From what I understand the 31 (not 30) is correct as it is a squad of 25 plus 6 youngsters.

- Oli

No Hargreaves in the European squad. Van der Sar Kuszczak Amos* Neville Evra J. Evans Ferdinand W. Brown Smalling Vidic O'Shea Fabio* Rafael* Gill* Nani Anderson Giggs Park Carrick Scholes Fletcher Valencia Gibson C. Evans* Berbatov Rooney Hernandez Owen Obertan Macheda* *Indicates player is on List B.

- John

bebe?? excuse my ignorance btw

- letrip

The list above is copied and not my own so there could well be mistakes. As far as the CL list goes, I think you can name an unlimited number of U21's.

- John

The acid test would be whether either player makes the Champions' League squad where there is a hard limit of 25 players - there are 31 listed there. I would be surprised to see Hargreaves in there at the expense of, say, Gibson or Chicharito. My guess is the players who'll miss out will be Hargo, Anderson, Bebe, De Laet, Obertan, plus one from Neville or the twins. Neil I'm pretty sure Fletch is homegrown, he joined us at 16, so I think that's just a mistake in the list above. Ben Amos is also homegrown and under 21.

- fenwar

Excuse my ignorance on the rules for this, but why is Fletcher not classed as "homegrown"? I'd have thought Hargreaves' inclusion is somewhat optimistic, but I'd love to be proved wrong. I guess he's not keeping anyone else out.

- Neil

Both Hargreaves & Anderson included in squad. [b:25yqo8l7]Homegrown[/b:25yqo8l7] Gibson Giggs Brown Evans Rio Scholes Neville O'Shea Carrick Owen Rooney [b:25yqo8l7]Other[/b:25yqo8l7] Amos Fletcher Kuszczak Van der Sar Hargreaves Nani Anderson Park Evra Valencia Berbatov Chicharito Vidic [b:25yqo8l7]Under 21's[/b:25yqo8l7] Fabio Rafael De Laet Obertan Bebe Smalling Macheda

- John

Doesn't make any sense to me either...... Let's look at all the players again...was having a similar discussion on another forum, so basically pasting the same squad and status of homegrown or not.. Goal Keepers Van Der Sar Kuszczak Defenders Neville (home grown) Brown (home grown) O'Shea (home grown) Ferdinand (home grown) Vidic Evans (home grown) Evra De Laet Midfield Valencia Nani Park Carrick (home grown) Scholes (home grown) Fletcher (home grown) Gibson (home grown) Giggs (home grown) Anderson Hargreaves Forwards Rooney (home grown) Owen (home grown) Diouf Berbatov Hernandez That's our 25! Then the following don't need to be registered as they are under 21 (or were under 21 before January 1st of this year) and can play anyways.. Amos (3rd choice keeper) Fabio Rafael Smalling Cleverly Obertan Macheda Welbeck Petrucci Eikrem King Evans Gill .......... a possible explanation that I read though is that Amos would be registered as a 3rd choice keeper, AS [b:33qyqmur]supposedly[/b:33qyqmur] under Premier League rules, if you have registered only 2 keepers and 1 of them (or 2 of them) got injured, you wouldn't be allowed to bring in an emergency replacement... However if you registered 3 keepers, and at the same time 2 of them got injured, you would be entitled to bring in an emergency replacement....God knows now!

- Zain

Quick look at our squad on the skysports website and we appear to only have 24 players of the age of 22 or older, including Anderson and Hargreaves, so i'm not sure what the problem is? I wouldnt include Hargreaves anyway. I'd be shocked if he ever made a contribution for us again. Edit - My mistake, it appears that Ritchie De Laet counts as over 21, so we have 25 players. Still doesnt explain why we'd leave Anderson out though?

- twoc2002