Tottenham have long had squad registration issues in both the Premier League and Champions League so here's what their two new transfers mean
Tottenham have started to get moving in the January transfer window with players coming in and out of the doors at Hotspur Way and that has a knock-on effort for the various squad rules.
Spurs are set to complete a £34.7million deal for Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid after moving swiftly on Monday to see off competition from Aston Villa, while also closing in on the £13million signing of Santos left-back Souza, who is expected to land in the UK from Brazil on Tuesday to tie up his transfer.
Heading out of the door at Tottenham have been Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace in a £35million deal as well as Kota Takai on loan to Borussia Monchengladbach. A number of players out on loan have returned and moved on to new clubs during this January window although they do no affect the squad rules. because they were not already included.
If we can be forgiven for being presumptuous, here's what the completed Gallagher and Souza deals do to Spurs' Premier League and Champions League squad numbers and what room, or not, it leaves them for further transfers and which stars will have to be left out of Thomas Frank's squad.
Premier League
Souza fits nicely into the Premier League rules for Spurs because in that competition a club's Under-21 players do not need to be included on their 25-man squad list yet are eligible to play in the Premier League.
To be considered an Under-21 player for this current Premier League season, players must have been born on or after January 1, 2004. That means the Brazilian can join the likes of fellow January arrival Mason Melia as well as Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel on that list.
Importantly it also means that Tottenham still have one spot free in their non-homegrown player list, because they only have 16 rather than the allowed 17. That list also includes Yves Bissouma, who the club would like to move on in this window, as well as Rodrigo Bentancur and Mohammed Kudus who will not be available until April because of their injuries.
England international Gallagher will replace Johnson in the homegrown player list, meaning Tottenham still have seven of the eight required. Technically they could fit in another homegrown signing this month or give the place to a youngster already on the U21s list.
The Premier League rules state that "a 'Home Grown Player' is a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21)."
Kevin Danso qualifies as a homegrown player in Premier League terms because he was in the youth academies at Reading and MK Dons for years before leaving England at the age of 16 and later returning for a season at Southampton.
Here's how the club's Premier League squad looks now:
Premier League non-homegrown players (16 currently, 17 maximum allowed): Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky, Pedro Porro, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Joao Palhinha, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison, Pape Matar Sarr, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons, Randal Kolo Muani.
Premier League homegrown players (Seven currently and eight minimum required): Dominic Solanke, Kevin Danso, Brandon Austin, Ben Davies, James Maddison, Conor Gallagher, Djed Spence.
Notable Under-21s players: Souza, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel, Dane Scarlett, Mason Melia.
Champions League
If you've read these before, you'll know that this is the part where all hell breaks loose. Complying with the European squad rules has been a constant nightmare for Spurs and will continue to be for a while longer until the batch of 18-year-old signings eventually become B list players after two years at the club and then club-trained players a further year down the line.
It's all because the major issue in the Champions League, as it was in the Europa League last season, is the difference between UEFA's rules and the Premier League ones.
Let's start with the basics. UEFA's rules state that no club can have more than 25 players on their A-List during the season, of whom at least two must be goalkeepers.
The rules then make it clear 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".
So what exactly is a locally-trained player you might ask? Well there are two different types. One is a 'club-trained player', those players who have been on a club's books for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21. The other is an 'association-trained player', those who were on another club's books in the same association for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.
So as an example, while Danso is homegrown in the Premier League, he will not, like Gallagher, fit into that association-trained category in Europe because he left England at the age of 16.
Then another big problematic area for Spurs is the difference in the registering of young players and that will affect Souza.
In Europe, there is a B-List for players born on, or after, January 1, 2004 but they must have been eligible to play for the club for any uninterrupted period of two years since their 15th birthday – or for a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be submitted if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years without interruption.
So to put it simply, Spurs' Champions League squad is hugely bloated and spilling over in both non-locally trained spots and association trained ones, while having only one club-trained player in goalkeeper Brandon Austin.
As they need to register four in that latter category, Tottenham are required to leave three spots open, meaning what should be a 25-man squad instead shrinks to just a 22-man one.
While Gallagher is a straight swap for Johnson in the association-trained category, Souza replaces Takai in the non-locally trained department. The problem is Spurs have 21 players to fit into 17 non-locally trained spots and six association-trained players for four spots. Any association-trained players over the four allocated spots need to be crowbarred into the main group.
The simplest way to look at it is that with the two new signings and two departures, Spurs still have 27 senior players to fit into just 21 spots, keeping Austin aside.
Mathys Tel replaced the injured Dominic Solanke in the Champions League squad last month but the striker must return to the list immediately when fit, which he is now.
The next opportunity Tottenham will have to make three changes to their squad is ahead of the knockout phase, submitting their list by 11pm on February 5.
So even without further new arrivals and departures, Frank has some tough decisions to make with six players needing to be left out.
Maddison is likely to be kept out again with his ACL injury and decisions will have to be made on Bentancur and Kudus who may not return from injury until the final six weeks or so of the season.
Bissouma could depart from the Lilywhites and will be left out regardless, while Radu Dragusin is fit again after being left out but has been linked with a move back to Serie A. Key man Dejan Kulusevski could return to action next month if all goes well with an injection to stop the pain in his knee is successful. A decision will also have to be made over Tel and the new arrival Souza.
So six of those eight players just named cannot be registered if we're assuming the others all have to be, although there are also question marks about Antonin Kinsky's future. We're not including 18-year-old Mason Melia in our numbers here because we're assuming it's too early in his Spurs career to make it into the Champions League squad and the Irishman cannot be counted on the B list nor club-trained at this point.
With that in mind, here's how it all looks with the Champions League squad before Spurs even look at further new signings:
European non-locally trained players (21 currently, 17 maximum): Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky, Pedro Porro, Kevin Danso, Radu Dragusin, Souza, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Joao Palhinha, Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison, Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Mathys Tel, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons, Randal Kolo Muani.
Association trained players (six currently, only four can be used in exclusive slots): Dominic Solanke, Ben Davies, James Maddison, Conor Gallagher, Djed Spence, Archie Gray.