Thomas Frank will have plenty of choice when it comes to his Tottenham centre-back options during the 2025/26 season. Already boasting players such as Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Radu Dragusin, Kevin Danso, Ben Davies, Ashley Phillips and Alfie Dorrington in the position, Luka Vuskovic is now officially a Tottenham player and Kota Takai is set to follow.
Vuskovic was at the club's Hotspur Way training base on Saturday for his first day of pre-season training. Spurs struck a deal with Hajduk Split for the centre-back in September 2023 but FIFA rules always meant he would link up with the north London club in 2025 once he had turned 18 years of age.
The signing of Takai from Japanese side Kawasaki Frontale will hopefully be confirmed in the coming days after he bid farewell to his club's fans at the weekend. The 20-year-old is set to join Tottenham in a £5million deal.
Fans could get a glimpse of the duo on the field in a Spurs shirt for the first time very soon as the team have away friendlies at Reading and Luton Town coming up before heading off to Asia for their summer tour.
Tottenham have been active in the transfer market so far this summer but plenty more still needs to be done to see them kick on in the Premier League after finishing 17th last season. Frank has a large squad at his disposal, which will get even bigger with further new signings, and he will have to cut it down to size at the beginning of September to comply with the Premier League's 25-man squad regulations.
As ever, clubs cannot name more than 17 non-homegrown players on their main list. The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be homegrown.
Clubs also submit an additional Under-21 list that allows their youngsters to be eligible for Premier League football, which in turn frees up space in the 25-man playing squad. For the 2025/26 campaign, Under-21 players will have had to be born on or after January 1, 2004 to make the list.
The good news for Tottenham is that both Vuskovic and Takai can be named on the Under-21 list rather than the main list as they are both under the age of 21. Vuskovic, who turned 18 back in February, was born in Split on February 24, 2007 and Takai was born in Yokohama on September 4, 2004.
As Takai is set to turn 21 in September, he can only be classed as an Under-21 player for this season and then from 2026/27 he will have to be included on the main list. The fact the duo qualify as Under-21 players is a huge help for Tottenham due to the amount of non-homegrown players they have on their books.
The issue for Tottenham, though, is that Premier League and UEFA rules differ when it comes to registering a 25-man playing squad for the competition. Both Takai and Vuskovic won't be able to be named on Spurs' B List in the Champions League as they haven't been at the club for the required amount of time and will instead have to be named on their main list .
That is something Frank and those at the club will have to solve come September.