Tottenham Hotspur have already had a difficult decision to make in the Champions League by leaving a summer signing out. We now take a look at the Premier League rules to see if Thomas Frank’s men face similar issues with their squad domestically.
The Tottenham head coach was left in a very difficult position in naming his squad for the league phase of the Champions League due to the club’s shortage of homegrown and club-trained players.
Much to the surprise of many Tottenham fans, Mathys Tel has been left out of the Champions League squad and will play no part in the competition until January.
The others to be left out are Yves Bissouma, Kota Takai and the injured trio, Dejan Kulusevski, Radu Dragusin and James Maddison.
How is Tottenham’s Premier League squad shaping up?
Football.London’s Alasdair Gold has revealed that, thankfully, Frank faces no such hard decisions when it comes to the Premier League.
With rules being different domestically than in Europe, Spurs have just 16 non-homegrown players in their squad, with the competition allowing the club to name 17.
Tottenham are helped by the fact that the club’s Under-21 players do not need to be included in the 25-man squad, which means that Tel and Kota Takai do not need to be registered in the main squad.
Tottenham have to fix their homegrown and club-trained issues in January
As a result of hiring and firing many managers over the last six years, Tottenham have not paid sufficient attention to the homegrown and club-trained numbers while rebuilding their squads.
That is something that the club will be keen to fix in January, with several exits potentially all the cards.
Tottenham’s cause would have been helped had they managed to sign one of Eberechi Eze or Morgan Gibbs-White, with the two England internationals evidently being higher on the club’s wishlist than Xavi Simons.