Why Spurs can't simply buy players

There seem to be an awful lot of fans who don't appreciate that you simply can't go out and buy every foreign player you want and play them all.

Why Spurs can't buy players


When they give lists of who should be sold it is invariable most of the home grown players with a bunch of non-home grown players to take their place.

Home grown does not mean British, Frenchman Paul Pogba of Juventus actually qualifies as home grown because of the time he spent at Manchester United before his 21st birthday, as does Spaniard Cesc Fàbregas now at Chelsea and of course Incelander Gylfi Sigurdsson now at Swansea. Incidentally Frenchman Morgan Schneiderlin at Southampton qualifies as home grown.

It means a registered player with one of the home football associations (FA, Welsh FA etc) for 3 years (36 months) between the ages of 16 and 21.

The maximum non-home grown in a squad is 17 and there are moves t reduce that to 12.

Non-Home Grown Tottenham Hotspur Players

1   Younès Kaboul (2nd vice-captain)
2   Jan Vertonghen
3   Vlad Chiricheș
4   Paulinho
5   Roberto Soldado
6   Emmanuel Adebayor
7   Érik Lamela
8   Lewis Holtby
9   Étienne Capoue
10 Mousa Dembélé
11 Nacer Chadli
12 Christian Eriksen
13 Brad Friedel
14 Hugo Lloris
15 Iago Falque
16 Sandro
17 Benoît Assou-Ekotto
18 Michel Vorm

You see we already have 1 more non-home grown than we are allowed so to buy any more we must sell some or loan them out to other clubs.

Iago Falque looks to lack vision to me and it's doubtful that he is going to progress much further so is a sale or loan candidate, that still leaves us still with the maximum number.

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Benoît Assou-Ekotto perhaps or Vlad Chiricheș are the likely options to leave and we know Sandro would be more than happy to play in Italy. If all four of those left we have some leeway but we have to sell or loan out someone at least, in light of the situation who should it be?

Who should Tottenham get rid of so they can buy more non-home grown players?

You can see that the news of Spurs supposedly meeting the representatives of 27-year-old Miguel Lopes of Sporting tomorrow don't make any sense if we are trying to sign Wilfried Bony or Loïc Rémy, unless we are actively trying and expect to see some of the above players depart.

Next season Brad Friedel will retire so that will free one more place but at the moment as you see we can't simply sell Rose, Naughton, Lennon, Dawson, Townsend and buy foreign imports, we wouldn't be allowed to play them.