Mathys Tel is one of six players to miss out on Tottenham's Champions League squad for the first half of the 2025/26 season. Ahead of Spurs' return to Europe's premier competition later this month, the club had to submit their 25-man squad for the league phase to UEFA by 11pm on Tuesday, September 2.
Tottenham have had big issues with their European squad in the past as the rules do differ to those in the Premier League. What has proved problematic for the Lilywhites is a lack of club-trained players and having more than the required four association-trained players and the allotted 17 non-homegrown players.
This in turn has resulted in previous managers having to leave players out of a European squad. The matter has only got worse this season and a total of six players have been cut by Thomas Frank for the league phase.
The players to miss out are: Radu Dragusin, Kota Takai, Yves Bissouma, Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Mathys Tel.
Tottenham are unfortunately not in a position where they can name a squad of 25 players for the Champions League due to not having all four positions filled when it comes to club-trained players. Brandon Austin is the only player in that category and three gaps are left open as a result, thus leaving them in a predicament where they can only name a 22-man squad rather than the usual 25.
A new squad list can be submitted for the knockout round with a maximum of three changes for the remaining matches in the competition. In last season's Europa League, Djed Spence came into the Tottenham squad for the knockout phase following his omission for the first part of the competition with Ange Postecoglou unfortunately needing to cut players.
In this season's Champions League, Spurs will face Villarreal, Bodo/Glimt, AS Monaco, FC Copenhagen, PSG, Slavia Prague, Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. Here is Tottenham's squad for the league phase:
Goalkeepers: Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky, Brandon Austin.
Defenders: Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Ben Davies, Micky van de Ven.
Midfielders: Joao Palhinha, Xavi Simons, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert, Pape Matar Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur.