Squad Registration 2025-26

[Saoirse]

For the Premier League, we look fine. The rules are relatively simple. 1) There is a maximum squad size of 25 players. 2) At least 8 of these have to be trained in England for at least 3 years before the age of 21. 3) U21 players (born on 1/1/2004 or later) don't have to be registered. So Spurs currently have:

Homegrown:

1. Austin
2. Danso
3. Davies
4. Spence
5. Maddison
6. Johnson
7. Solanke

Non-Homegrown:

1. Vicario
2. Kinsky
3. Keeley
4. Romero
5. Van de Ven
6. Dragusin
7. Udogie
8. Porro
9. Sarr
10. Bentancur
11. Bissouma
12. Gil
13. Solomon
14. Son
15. Kulusevski
16. Richarlison
17. Veliz

Senior U21 Players:

Bergvall
Devine
Donley
Dorrington
Gray
Lankshear
Maguire
Moore
Odobert
Phillips
Scarlett
Tel
Vuskovic
Yang

Therefore, Tottenham can bring in one more homegrown player already while keeping everyone registered - and you'd expect Keeley, Gil and Veliz will definitely leave on loans or permanents without directly being replaced in the squad having not been around last season, alongside probably Solomon.

The Champions League, unfortunately, is where we start getting issues. The rules here are a little more complicated: 1) There is a maximum squad size of 25 players. 2) At least 4 of these have to be trained in England for at least 3 years between the ages of 15 and 21. 3) At least 4 of these have to be trained at Tottenham Hotspur for at least 3 years between the ages of 15 and 21. 4) U21 players are only exempt if they've been at the club for at least 2 years in a row, or 3 years in total with 1 of those being on loan to another club in England. 5) A maximum of 3 changes to the squad can be made between the league and knockout phases.

This notably means that many of our U21 players have to be registered, and that Danso does not count as homegrown (because 1 of his 3 years in England as a young player came before he was 15). And we only have 1 club homegrown player, effectively giving us a maximum squad size of 22 since we'll have to leave the other 3 club homegrown slots empty. That gives us:

Club Homegrown:

1. Austin

Nation Homegrown:

1. Davies
2. Spence
3. Gray
4. Maddison
5. Johnson
6. Solanke

Non-Homegrown:

1. Vicario
2. Romero
3. Van de Ven
4. Danso
5. Udogie
6. Porro
7. Sarr
8. Bergvall
9. Bentancur
10. Bissouma
11. Son
12. Kulusevski
13. Odobert
14. Tel
15. Richarlison

Senior U21 Players:

Devine
Donley
Dorrington
Lankshear
Maguire
Moore
Scarlett

Unregistered and ineligible to play:

Kinsky
Keeley
Dragusin
Phillips
Vuskovic
Gil
Solomon
Yang
Veliz


There are immediately some issues here. Firstly, with Kinsky (and Keeley) unable to be registered, our third-choice goalkeeper in Europe becomes Aaron Maguire. There is an exception in the rules which means that if both Vicario and Austin are injured for at least 30 days at the same time, we can swap one of them out for Kinsky until they've returned from injury. However, if only one of them is injured, Maguire is on the bench - and if both are unavailable but at least one of them's due to short-term injury or suspension, then Aaron Maguire is making his senior debut in the Champions League. If we want to avoid taking that risk, we need to register Kinsky instead of e.g. Davies, Gray, Bissouma, Odobert or Richarlison.

Secondly, in terms of transfers, it's clearly a matter of one-in, one-out for Europe. The good thing is that we have two more nation homegrown players than we need, so selling a homegrown player e.g. Davies and replacing him with a foreign one is fine. The only other option, if we really want some extra squad depth, is to bring back a player who came through our academy - the most notable candidate here is Kyle Walker-Peters on a free as a 4th choice fallback.

Thirdly, although some have called to send him out on loan, we really want to keep Archie Gray at the club if we see him here long-term. If we do, this would mean he'd count as an U21 player by 2026, and club homegrown from 2027 onwards.

And finally, it raises the question of whether we want any of those U21 players (Devine, Donley, Dorrington, Lankshear, Moore, and Scarlett) to stay at the club instead of being loaned out, in order to boost our squad depth and options on the bench for Europe.

If we make Europe again in 2026-27, things do get quite a bit easier, since Bergvall and Gray will both have been here for 2 years and therefore won't need to be registered - and for every year after that, they can go on the Club Homegrown list which is normally difficult to fill up. So while we still won't have much wriggle room, it's this coming season where it's a more signficant problem.

 

[JeremyPaxton]

Given the club was so ignorant of its own squad rules that it wasn’t aware it couldn’t loan out Matt Doherty until after it had reportedly agreed to do that, how confident are we that the club and manager are aware of these issues now. and considering how to resolve them proactively?

 

[Saoirse]

Given the club was so ignorant of its own squad rules that it wasn’t aware it couldn’t loan out Matt Doherty until after it had reportedly agreed to do that, how confident are we that the club and manager are aware of these issues now. and considering how to resolve them proactively?

The Doherty thing was a fuck-up. But it wasn't so much squad registration rules (which have been in place for decades now) - it was a new FIFA rule that year saying that you can have a maximum of 6 non-homegrown, over-21 players out on loan at the same time, designed to discourage clubs from hoarding players. The squad rules are far more familiar, and Ange was questioned on his squad selection at multiple points last season - I'm certain they're aware. Buying in 18 year olds who are good enough to go straight into the first team without loans, who will therefore become club homegrown, is also the best thing you can do long term - and we've done just that with Bergvall, Gray, and possibly now Vuskovic. So I think they are being proactive in solving this, but it does take a couple of years to bear fruits.

 

[Johno1470]

A CL squad with 22 players will be really interesting. No doubt we’re gonna have to leave out some first team players. Rather than registering two non-HG keepers, we should consider not registering Kinsky if Vic remains number 1, which we did for EL registration.

If we wanted to bring in some former Club trained players, we have the likes of KWP and Cirkin, however I can’t see us bringing any of them in.

Another option would be to not register Ben Davies. This would afford another option to the non-HG list.

I would like to see some movement in terms of departures in the coming weeks. Can easily see Bissouma and Richarlison being first out the door.

 

[Saoirse]

A CL squad with 22 players will be really interesting. No doubt we’re gonna have to leave out some first team players. Rather than registering two non-HG keepers, we should consider not registering Kinsky if Vic remains number 1, which we did for EL registration.

If we wanted to bring in some former Club trained players, we have the likes of KWP and Cirkin, however I can’t see us bringing any of them in.

Another option would be to not register Ben Davies. This would afford another option to the non-HG list.

I would like to see some movement in terms of departures in the coming weeks. Can easily see Bissouma and Richarlison being first out the door.

Agreed. GK wise, I guess the difference is that last season we had Whiteman as 3rd choice in Europe, and he's gone now - I don't know how highly rated Maguire is internally compared to him.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

Keeley is not homegrown

 

[bceej]

Thanks for putting this together - nice little point of reference for transfer masterminding.

 

[Saoirse]

Keeley is not homegrown

My bad, edited now, thank you!

 

[Saoirse]

The other option for goalkeepers would be to bring back one of the three academy products who're now backup GKs at Championship clubs - Tom Glover, Jordan Archer, or Thimothée Lo-Tutala - to be 3rd choice in Europe.

 

[hellava_tough]

@Saoirse thanks for putting this together

 

[hellava_tough]

I think the CL rules for homegrown players are too restrictive tbh

If you had a young lad join at 14 or 15 you'd have to wait until they were 17 or 18 respectively

But if you want to give them their debut at 16, 17 or 18 (depending on the month they were registered) you couldn't

To me, this hinders showcasing the club's academy talent, which isn't really in line with the spirit of the rule

 

[Saoirse]

I think the CL rules for homegrown players are too restrictive tbh

If you had a young lad join at 14 or 15 you'd have to wait until they were 17 or 18 respectively

But if you want to give them their debut at 16, 17 or 18 (depending on the month they were registered) you couldn't

To me, this hinders showcasing the club's academy talent, which isn't really in line with the spirit of the rule

Players who're at the club for two years, and under 21, can play at any time. If a 7 year old kid joins the academy, they're hypothetically eligible once they're 9. Where you have to wait a bit is if you've signed a young player from a different club, as we have with the likes of Bergvall, Gray, Yang etc.

 

[hellava_tough]

Players who're at the club for two years, and under 21, can play at any time. If a 7 year old kid joins the academy, they're hypothetically eligible once they're 9. Where you have to wait a bit is if you've signed a young player from a different club, as we have with the likes of Bergvall, Gray, Yang etc.

Yeah, but I'd still consider a 14 or 15 year old still a 'kid' for all intents and purposes.

Meaning they're part of the academy, as opposed to young adults who already reaped the benefits of another club's academy.

I don't know, perhaps that's the point...that kids start so young at clubs that 14 or 15 isn't considered super young in the grand scheme of things

 

[Saoirse]

Yeah, but I'd still consider a 14 or 15 year old still a 'kid' for all intents and purposes.

Meaning they're part of the academy, as opposed to young adults who already reaped the benefits of another club's academy.

I don't know, perhaps that's the point...that kids start so young at clubs that 14 or 15 isn't considered super young in the grand scheme of things

I guess the thing is that everyone is in an academy from a very young age these days - so if we're signing someone aged 15, they inevitably have reaped the benefits somewhere else already. And even in those cases, they can play from 17, which is about the youngest I've ever seen us given players more than a few minutes anyway - even that's for exceptional talents like Kane, Bale and Moore.

 

[cockerel downunder]

I can’t see us leaving kinsky out so we might need to lose bissouma from that list without replacement unless we can free a squad place somewhere else.

kwp seems a good bet, but having right footers on the left might not suit franks system as much as Ange.

Other CT options include CCV (done well at Celtic, could replace Davies as 4th choice CB,) or Troy parrot (replace Richie as backup striker, think he can also play RW)

hopefully 1 of Devine or donelly are ready to be a genuine first team squad option but can’t see them replacing anyone. maybe cover Deki’s injury though

Not sure how skipp did at leister but I think he’d be ok in a frank double pivot. We are so stacked in cm though already that I can’t see it being a good option.

Only 1 thing for it, have to bring Kane back!!

 

[coy-spurs1882]

I can’t see us leaving kinsky out so we might need to lose bissouma from that list without replacement unless we can free a squad place somewhere else.

kwp seems a good bet, but having right footers on the left might not suit franks system as much as Ange.

Other CT options include CCV (done well at Celtic, could replace Davies as 4th choice CB,) or Troy parrot (replace Richie as backup striker, think he can also play RW)

hopefully 1 of Devine or donelly are ready to be a genuine first team squad option but can’t see them replacing anyone. maybe cover Deki’s injury though

Not sure how skipp did at leister but I think he’d be ok in a frank double pivot. We are so stacked in cm though already that I can’t see it being a good option.

Only 1 thing for it, have to bring Kane back!!

or a Welsh world class serial winner left footed RW...

 

[tevezito]

With the Club World Cup getting underway last night and the continued complaints about player fatigue, and the five (six with ET) subs rule. I have been mightily confused for a long time about why there isn't more calls for the European competition squad number limits to be raised by a player or two. Maybe one more foreign and one more HG would make more sense with the current playing field?

It seems odd that their rules are more restrictive than the national level rules, when they are the competitions that add games and squad challenges for the clubs competing in them.

 

[tevezito]

or a Welsh world class serial winner left footed RW...

What a weird description of Marcus Edwards!

 

[Saoirse]

I can’t see us leaving kinsky out so we might need to lose bissouma from that list without replacement unless we can free a squad place somewhere else.

kwp seems a good bet, but having right footers on the left might not suit franks system as much as Ange.

Other CT options include CCV (done well at Celtic, could replace Davies as 4th choice CB,) or Troy parrot (replace Richie as backup striker, think he can also play RW)

hopefully 1 of Devine or donelly are ready to be a genuine first team squad option but can’t see them replacing anyone. maybe cover Deki’s injury though

Not sure how skipp did at leister but I think he’d be ok in a frank double pivot. We are so stacked in cm though already that I can’t see it being a good option.

Only 1 thing for it, have to bring Kane back!!

Yeah, I don't particularly think Parrott's good enough to bother with - it's relatively easy to look decent as a striker in the Dutch league. And Carter Vickers is going to be too expensive, he's been linked with moves to lower PL clubs in the £25-30m range. Agree on Skipp not being needed. So yeah, I do personally think that unfortunately KWP and a random backup goalie are the only real options that help here.

 

[Majick]

Useful resource, thanks Saoirse!

One thing to note is that it's not that unusual for sub-25 player squads to be named in Europe; City have done this in the past, before they had the likes of Foden, Lewis and Palmer coming through their academy/old enough to need to be included in the 25. And we do have a lot of young players who we can call on to make up the numbers - it's just for years we were carried by having Kane, 2 academy goalies and Winks/Skipp available.

A matchday squad in the CL is 20 players, from memory, and not all of them can be used. So even allowing for it being nice if we could name a 25 man squad, in effect it'll just mean we'll have to be a bit more careful with rotation. Last season we could have named Max Robson from the u21 team in the EL squad at the start of the reason as he was too old to make List B, but as I don't ever recall him even making the bench for the first team at any point I suppose the feeling was it would have just been including someone for the sake of including them.