Foyth, N’Koudou left off of Tottenham’s Champions League squad

Tottenham Hotspur have released their squad for the group stage of the 2018 Champions League, and as expected there are a couple of fringe first team players who did not make the cut.

According to Sky Sports, young Argentinian center back Juan Foyth, French winger Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, and Dutch striker Vincent Janssen are the three most prominent players who were left out of Mauricio Pochettino’s 22-man “A-list” squad for European competition. There’s a chance that any of the three could be added back into the squad in the event that Spurs advance out of their group.

First, here is the 22-man “A-list”.

Goalkeepers

• Hugo Lloris
• Michel Vorm
• Paulo Gazzaniga

Defenders

• Kieran Trippier
• Serge Aurier
• Ben Davies
• Danny Rose
• Toby Alderweireld
• Jan Vertonghen
• Davinson Sanchez

Midfielders

• Eric Dier
• Victor Wanyama
• Harry Winks
• Mousa Dembele
• Mousa Sissoko
• Dele Alli
• Christian Eriksen
• Erik Lamela

Forwards

• Harry Kane
• Son Heung-Min
• Lucas Moura
• Fernando Llorente

Clubs that play in the Champions League actually submit two lists of players for registration. “List A” is comprised of a max of 25 players. Two of them have to be keepers, and eight spots are reserved for “club trained players,” defined as players trained by the club for three years between the ages of 15-21, or who were on another club’s roster in the same association for three years in the same period. You can’t have more than 4 association-trained players on List A.

“List B” can be filled with players who are 21 or under and who have been at the club for at least two years. There’s no limit to the number of players who can be on this list. Players from List B can feature for a club in the Champions League match so long as they register him a day before the match. That would include players such as Kyle Walker-Peters, Luke Amos, Oliver Skipp, or Anthony Georgiou (who played against APOEL last season).

Spurs are restricted to 22 players (instead of 25) due to not having enough club-trained players in their roster. If you recall, Eric Dier and Ben Davies do not count as “association trained” because Dier came through the ranks at Porto Sporting, and Davies in the Welsh FA.

None of these omissions are particularly surprising. Foyth was originally listed as part of the group stage squad during last year’s competition but was cut after Erik Lamela returned from his surgery and to full fitness. Despite being 20 years old, he doesn’t qualify for List B because he hasn’t been at the club for two years. Since Spurs’ squad is essentially the same as last season, they have the same roster problems as last season. Hence, Foyth is out. It’s probably also not helped by the fact that Foyth picked up a serious injury in Spurs’ preseason and has yet to return to full training.

Janssen is emphatically not in Pochettino’s plans and also just had surgery, so his exclusion is not a surprise. N’Koudou is a fringe player and almost certainly wouldn’t feature even if Pochettino found a place for him in the squad.