Tottenham to add Juan Foyth to their Champions League squad… if they beat Inter Milan and Barcelona

Tottenham vs Inter Milan | Follow all the build-up and match action
Omitted | Juan Foyth was left out of Tottenham's Champions League squad for the group stages
REUTERS/David Klein
Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP27 November 2018

Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham must not repeat the mistake of having too many foreign players in their Champions League squad, with in-form defender Juan Foyth ineligible for Inter Milan's must-win visit on Wednesday.

Foyth, who has started Spurs' last three League games, was left out of the club's 22-man squad along with forgotten forwards Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou. Champions League clubs are limited to 17 non-locally trained players and Spurs currently have 20 – with Welsh left-back Ben Davies and Eric Dier, who was raised in Portugal, both counting as foreign-trained.

Should they reach the knockouts by beating Inter and Barcelona in their final two group matches, Pochettino hopes to be able to include Foyth, 20, in an updated squad in March. The Spurs manager stressed that the situation was not his fault alone and admitted it had an effect on their summer transfer business.

"It’s in the club’s hands – not mine only. We share the responsibility with the club, because if not it looks like the bad things are [down to] the gaffer and the good things we share," Pochettino said.

"I’m so disappointed from the beginning because it’s not only him [Foyth] but GK Nkoudou and Vincent Janssen, and that’s so painful. It’s a mistake that we made that at this level of football [that] we cannot repeat again.

Tottenham squad 2019-20 | Injuries, contracts and squad numbers

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"We need to find solutions before the start of the season. From the beginning of the season, I was so disappointed because the squad was so big and when the people say ‘you’re the only club that doesn’t sign any players’, to sign another player means to put another player out of the list for the Champions League. I told you we need English players, but it was impossible. Of course now that is the problem and it’s so painful to have players out of the list.

"Now we’re going to finish [the group stage] and then we hope in March we can do a new list and include him in the list for the Champions League. But in that moment when you needed to take a decision from the beginning, you cannot guess what is going to happen. That was a position where we had a lot of players, and today because in the last few months we have now no Davinson, and Jan was injured.

"That is why we used Juan or we gave many players the opportunity. But I’m so disappointed with that situation. I’m happy with him, his evolution. He’s going to play of course and he’s showed great quality, but I’m disappointed that we cannot come with him in the Champions League."

Spurs host Inter at Wembley on the back off Saturday's impressive 3-1 demolition of Chelsea at the national stadium, in which Dele Alli scored for the sixth time in as many appearances against the Blues. Alli has also scored against Manchester City, Man United, Real Madrid, Liverpool and Arsenal since joining Spurs and Pochettino said the midfielder relishes the big occasions.

"You know Dele, he loves a challenge, every single game and big things," Pochettino said. "He is a winner, his mentality is that he gets bored quick when he doesn't feel the pressure and challenge. We laugh a lot with Jesus, when he is alone with the ball in front of the goal he is boring, we say, 'Oh that is Dele Alli', but when he is with opposition and with pressure he is unbelievable. He is a competitor, he loves this type of game, he loves to compete in a difficult situation. This is how I describe him."

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