The signing of Alexandre Lacazette has maxed out Arsenal’s quota of non-homegrown players, and could therefore affect the Gunners’ transfer business.

The limits imposed upon Premier League clubs are that in their 25-man squad, each club can only have 17 players that don’t count as homegrown.

A homegrown player is one that has been at the club for a period of three seasons before his 21st birthday (or before the end of the season in which he turns 21). This period of three seasons doesn’t have to be continuous, as long as the player spends all three at the club, or 36 months total.

With the signing of Lacazette, Arsenal have reached this total of 17, reports the Mirror. So does this mean they have to sell? Well, no. Firstly, being at the limit is no problem, so unless Arsenal sign another player there is no issue. Secondly, you can have a player at the club and just choose not to register them.

Although this is far from ideal, if the club really couldn’t manage to shift any of their 17 non-homegrown players and wanted to make another signing, they could just leave one of the current 17 unregistered for Premier League action.

But if Arsenal wanted to sign another player, such as the recently linked Riyad Mahrez of Leicester or Thomas Lemar of Monaco, and didn’t want to keep someone on the books who couldn’t play for them in the league, they would have to sell one of their non-homegrown players.

The most likely candidates would probably be Lucas Perez, David Ospina or Mathieu Debuchy, who have already been linked with moves away from the club.

Finally, players under the age of 21 are exempt from these rules and you can have as many as you want without them taking up places in your 17. So a move for Monaco’s Kylian Mbappé could still happen. Just need to find £100m and a reason for him to join.