Tottenham forced to omit Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilon from their 23-man Europa League group-stage squad

Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed their squad for the Europa League group stages.

The Lilywhites faced a deadline on Wednesday to submit their squad to UEFA for the Europa League competition, complying with strict regulations regarding squad numbers. While the selection for the Premier League squad is straightforward, with all players easily registered, Ange Postecoglou faced a challenge in picking the squad for the European competition.

According to a report from Football London, new summer signings Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray have to be registered in the main bunch due to complex Europa League rules and regulations. This is because in UEFA competitions, this group is referred to as the B list, which only includes players who have been at the club for two years, and both Bergvall and Gray don’t fall into that category.

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In addition, the meaning of homegrown talent differs in European contests, dividing into two unique groups. The aforementioned report adds “as a minimum, eight of those 25 places are earmarked exclusively for ‘locally trained players’ and no club may have more than four ‘association-trained players’ listed among those eight places.

Tottenham, however, only have two out of the required four ‘club-trained players’—Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman. This has compelled them to reduce their squad to 23 players, and unfortunately, Djed Spence misses out. Sergio Reguilon, while surplus to requirements at the club, has also not been registered.

Djed Spence arrived at Spurs from Middlesbrough in 2022. After spending the last 18 months out on loan, the wing-back impressed Big Ange and his coaching staff during the pre-season tour of Asia and has supposedly worked his way back into his plans as a deputy to Pedro Porro. In his absence in the Europa League group stages, we could predict that Gray will be called upon to operate at right-back if Big Ange decides to rest Porro.

If the North London side advance past the group stages, they will be allowed to submit a new squad with minimal permitted changes. Big Ange’s side are set to face Qarabag, Ferencvaros, AZ Alkmaar, Galatasaray, Roma, Rangers, Hoffenheim and Elfsborg in the new format of Europa League group stages over the coming months.

Here is Tottenham’s group stage main squad list in full:

Goalkeepers:

Guglielmo Vicario, Fraser Forster, Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman.

Defenders:

Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie and Ben Davies.

Midfielders:

Yves Bissouma, James Maddison, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Dejan Kulusevski, Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur.

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Forwards:

Son Heung-min, Richarlison, Timo Werner and Dominic Solanke.