The club-trained and foreign player issues that have plagued Tottenham in recent seasons will continue to be a major issue during the 2025/26 season. Tottenham may have finished the campaign 17th in the Premier League table but they will be playing in Europe once again as a result of their Europa League triumph.
Spurs' final victory over Manchester United means they will be involved in the Champions League for the first time since the 2022/23 season. Come the start of September following the closure of the summer transfer window, the north London club will have to submit 25-man squads for both the Premier League and Champions League.
The regulations do differ between both competitions, though, and this has proved troublesome in the past. In the Premier League, there is a limit of 17 non-homegrown players and the rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be homegrown.
Clubs also name a separate list of Under-21 players, which in turns help out when it comes to the main 25-man squad. For the 2025/26 Premier League season, Under-21 players will have been born on or after January, 1 2004.
In the Champions League, clubs again need to submit a 25-man playing squad but the rules differ slightly and it has caused Tottenham a real headache in years gone by. As is the case with the Premier League, the maximum number of non-homegrown players in a 25-man squad is 17.
The rules then say that "as a minimum, eight of those 25 places are reserved exclusively for 'locally trained players' and no club may have more than four 'association-trained players' listed among those eight places. If a club have fewer than eight locally trained players in their squad, then the maximum number of players on List A is reduced accordingly".
The issue for Tottenham at present is they have a large number of non-homegrown and association-trained players and barely any club-trained players. Some players who are young enough to be included on the B-List, such as Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert, cannot be named on there as they haven't been with the club for the required amount of time (A full breakdown of the club's non-homegrown and homegrown numbers for the Champions League can be found here).
As things stand right now, Brandon Austin will be the only club-trained player on Tottenham's books after it was confirmed that Alfie Whiteman will depart following the conclusion of his contract on June 30. The departures of Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane over the past two seasons has seen the amount of club-trained players fall dramatically.
Tottenham will then have one less association-trained player to consider for their squad as Fraser Forster is also leaving at the end of his contract this month. The experienced shot-stopper should have plenty of options ahead of next season, with former club Newcastle United linked with a move for the 37-year-old.
Newcastle are so well stocked in goal right now but there looks set to be some movement in the goalkeeping depart with Nick Pope, Odysseas Vlachodimos, Martin Dubravka, John Ruddy and Mark Gillespie all on the books. Ruddy had looked poised to depart but Newcastle confirmed in a statement on Friday that they have opened discussions with the goalkeeper about his future and a new contract could still be agreed.
Some may question the talk of Forster returning to Newcastle given the amount of goalkeepers at the club but it's something that makes complete sense as they also have homegrown player issues for next season's edition of the Champions League. As reported by ChronicleLive, the Magpies, just like Tottenham, only have one club-trained player on the books right now with the recent exits of Elliot Anderson and Paul Dummett leaving Sean Longstaff as the only one who ticks the boxes in regards to that category.
The addition of Forster, though, would help Newcastle and ensure that Eddie Howe has at least two club-trained players as part of his 25-man squad for the Champions League. Born in Hexham and joining the Magpies when he was 15, Forster spent a number of years with the club before departing for Celtic on a permanent basis in 2012 after five separate loan spells away.
He never got to make a senior appearance for his boyhood club but the chance could potentially arise if he signs on at St James' Park upon the expiration of his Tottenham contract. At a time when Tottenham are struggling with their own homegrown player issues in the Champions League, Forster may be about to help Newcastle out with theirs.