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CL squad shows the importance of developing our youth players

4 min read

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TALK


Vincent Janssen and Eric Lamela have been left out of Spurs UEFA Champions League squad for the group stages and some have assumed it is because Pochettino doesn't rate Janssen and Eric Lamela is still injured.

To a degree that is true, Fernando Llorente has gone into the squad in place of Janssen, there is no hiding that and Erik Lamela has to develop fitness and then match fitness, which the Premier League and domestic cup competitions can provide.

Selecting squads is not as easy as you might think with the UEFA qualifying rules on player legibility, rules designed toi encourage players to produce their own players. That should explain to soime why our youth development system is important and how it takes years to bring a player like Harry Winks through who can increase our club trained quota, which is too low. It stands at one, when really we need three.

 Under UEFA Champions League rules there are two sets of players, List A and List B. These are broken down further.

List A

locally trained players dictate the number of non-locally trained players you can have in a squad.

Who are our 'locally trained player'?

This isn't as simple as you would think as there are two different categories here also.

Category 1 - Club-trained players –  these are players who were on Spurs books for three years between the ages of 15 and 21

Category 2 - Association-trained players - The England Football Association, Welsh Football Association, Scottish Football Association for instance are all separate associations.  Any player who was on another football club's books in the same association (in our case the English Football Association) for three years between the ages of 15 and 21. No club can have more than four association-trained players among their eight nominees on List A.

Harry Kane, therefore, is a locally trained player, while Ben Davies was under the Welsh FA so is not a locally trained player, nor is Eric Dier who grew up in Portugal with Sporting and came through their system.

We have to bare all this in mind when working in the transfer market, we can't just go and buy any player, nor can we go and buy any premier League player or any British player, the rules are all about where a player was trained in those formative years.

The Premier League have similar rules for home grown and non-home grown players. That's why a player like Kyle Walker can command a fee greater than you would expect, because he was going to an English club and developed under the English Football Association. He is valuable for a club's UEFA Champions League quota.

List B

A player may be registered on List B if he is born on, or after, 1 January 1995 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday (players aged 16 may be registered if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years). Clubs are entitled to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season, but the list must be submitted by no later than 24:00CET the day before a match.

That's the official simplified version of the full rules taken from the official UEFA website. Harry Winks isn't named in List A because through age he qualifies for List B, where as Dele Alli, a few months older, is in List A.

Harry Kane is the only club trained player in the squad, with a further three association trained players In Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose and Dele Alli.

UEFA rules state that if a club can only field two club trained players then their UEFA Champions League List A can only comprise 21 players.

Had we gone out and bought further foreign players, then we would have had to leave out more than just Vincent Janssen and Eric Lamela and that would perhaps hamper a player like Juan Foyth or Georges-Kevin N'Koudou who we want to develop.

Tottenham Hotspur Squad

Goalkeepers
Hugo Lloris
Michel Vorm
Paulo Gazzaniga

Defenders
Kieran Trippier - association trained
Danny Rose - association trained
Toby Alderweireld
Jan Vertonghen
Davinson Sanchez
Juan Foyth
Serge Aurier
Ben Davies

Midfielders
Victor Wanyama
Georges-Kevin N’Koudou
Eric Dier
Moussa Sissoko
Mousa Dembele
Dele Alli - association trained
Christian Eriksen

Forwards
Heung-Min Son
Harry Kane - club trained
Fernando Llorente

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6 comments

  1. Nice try Clive but the decision to offload VJ was made when Llorente was purchased hence DL’s last minute attempts (read Der Telegraph story) in the transfer window.
    So now the player is being humiliated simply because he would not agree to the WBA or B’ton moves.
    I seem to remember VJ saying that he wanted to stay and fight for his place at Spurs so it would appear that we have now shut the door in his face.
  2. We have just upgraded and Jansen provudes further covered if required. Arsenal have 4 even 5 strikers. We now have what we need. Jansen's only humiliation is gis scoring record at Spurs although I believe he will come good.
  3. I'm gutted for Vinny he could be a brilliant player and may still make it with us (however doubtful now). Although I still think if he'd have banged in the goals last season, I and most Spurs fans would be saying we'd need a 3rd striker for rotation and cups etc.
    (I doubt it) yet I hope Poch has put his arm around him and assured him that he will get game time in the efl and Fa cup and 15/20 mins of Prem games in order to prove his worth. Kane's had some nasty injuries last season and needs a rest Llorente can provide that but Jansen still needs chances to prove his worth. I'd like to see a few games with Llorente and Jansen up top feeding off each other and hopefully decent crosses into the box for them to both to pick off.
  4. One must remember that managers have their own ideas of what they expect from a player.One should also understand that not every player fit every formation.I personally am disappointed that Janssen is not a part of the squad but I trust Pochettino and I hope he will allows Janssen to fight this disappointment and prove himself in domestic matches.
  5. On Wikipedia, apparently Janssen is said to have poor call control as part of his weaknesses being listed. The other glaring weakness is his movement timing... given that he plays a fox in the box type of player... it's surprising that these are his two big weaknesses... and it's more surprising that we even bought him... I wonder what was his goals to chance ratio in the season he finished as top scorer in the Dutch league... the way we play, we require every player to have excellent ball control plus impeccable timing to move into open space to receive the ball and make the return pass... I noticed in quite a few matches last season, VJ was tripping over the ball, getting it stuck under his feet whilst getting into good positions... poor ball control?
    • Apologies for auto correct... call = ball