Tottenham's puzzling decision

Tottenham surprisingly left Mathys Tel out of the Champions League squad, despite spending £35 million to buy the young French striker from Bayern Munich in the summer.

Tel, 20, joined Spurs on loan with an obligation to buy in January amid a squad crunch at the club, scoring three goals in the second half of last season, enough to convince the board to sign him on a permanent deal.

However, under new coach Thomas Frank, this winger only plays a reserve role and now continues to be eliminated from Europe's most prestigious arena.

According to UEFA regulations, each club can register a maximum of 25 players on the A list, with at least 8 being “homegrown”. Tottenham did not meet the requirements, so they submitted a list of 22, of which only Brandon Austin - a reserve goalkeeper - was trained at the club's academy.

In addition to Tel, the list is also missing other notable names such as James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski (long-term injury), Yves Bissouma (disciplined), center-back Radu Dragusin and Japanese defender Kota Takai. This is clearly a step back for Tel, and at the same time exposes Spurs' difficult personnel problem when investing heavily but not making effective use of it.

Not only Tottenham, Chelsea also had to drop new signing Facundo Buonanotte for the same reason. On the contrary, Arsenal made a splash when they included 15-year-old prodigy Max Dowman - a player who just debuted in the Premier League - in the Champions League list.

Teams will have the opportunity to add and adjust their squad after the group stage if they qualify for the next round. For Spurs, the decision to leave Tel out will certainly leave many questions in the upcoming European journey.

Source: https://znews.vn/quyet-dinh-kho-hieu-cua-tottenham-post1582378.html