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Thomas Frank has decided on Tottenham's three changes for the knockout stages of the Champions League and there is plenty to take from them
Tottenham have submitted their revised Champions League squad for the last 16 and hopefully beyond with Thomas Frank making all three changes that were permitted.
Spurs' European squad registration issues have been rumbling on for years and every season numerous players have to be left out as the north London outfit do not have enough club-trained players - they only currently have one of the required four - and they have too many non-locally trained players and association trained players to fit in to their 22-man squad.
It should be a 25-man squad but the club is penalised according to UEFA's rules for only have one club-trained player by needing to leave three spots open.
Frank decided to use all three changes he could for the knockout stages, with players who have already played in the competition for another side able to be registered. That meant Conor Gallagher could be added to the list along with Mathys Tel and Radu Dragusin to replace the injured duo Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur as well as Brennan Johnson, who departed to Crystal Palace in the January transfer window.
Here are five things we learned about Frank's three choices...
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Kulusevski update
Essentially Frank's decision is a Dejan Kulusevski update in itself as it tells us that the Swede, despite being a key player for the club, is nowhere near being ready even for the last 16 clash in mid-March against either Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray or Club Brugge.
That suggests something has not gone right since Frank last provided an update on the 25-year-old last month.
"We know it's a complicated injury. If there's one person who can accelerate that, it's Dejan. He's a top pro and has got a top mentality," admitted the Dane at the start of January. "The most important thing is to remove the pain in the knee. He got an injection to help that 10 days ago. We know in three to four weeks if it's settled and when it's settled, hopefully, he’ll be on the grass and from there, we’ll see what’s happening.
"It was not going forward as quickly as we thought but it's an injury we haven’t seen that much in football history, It's a complicated injury, where it’s important to make sure there’s no pain in the knee. That’s why he got an injection and it hopefully will help. So in three to four weeks’ time, he’ll be on the grass pain-free."
It is now four weeks since Frank spoke about the injection and three to four week timeframe and the fact that he has now left Kulusevski out of squad for next month's match and any further Champions League games does not bode well.
Kulusevski responded to an Instagram user last week who replied under one of his posts "I thought you died". The Swede replied: "Still alive."
Tottenham fans will have to wait as they did with Dominic Solanke and his ankle for when the pain finally subsides for the talented talisman.
Reward for Tel and Dragusin
Spare a thought for Tel, who signed for Spurs in a £30million summer move only to be left out of their Champions League squad.
The 20-year-old Frenchman then got back into the squad to cover the injured Solanke, didn't even start the match against Slavia Prague, and was instantly taken straight back out for the following game with Solanke back fit and had to watch the England international justify Frank's decision by scoring in both of the following European matches.
However, Tel has now got himself a spot back in the squad for the knockout stages and will be hoping to make up for lost time. First he needs to get more minutes in the Premier League with Frank not exactly throwing him much game time.
There was also a reward for Dragusin for all of the centre-back's efforts in battling back from his cruciate ligament injury with a year between starts for the Romania. Now he could make his second Champions League appearance five years after his only other one for Juventus.
The long-term injuries
Aside from Kulusevski, which of the long-term injured players Frank has taken out or continued to leave out gives us some indication over who will be back first and that appears to suggest Mohammed Kudus will be the next of the long-termers to return.
Kudus injured the tendon in his quad last month against Sunderland and was ruled out until after the international break at the end of March.
Rodrigo Bentancur is due back in April after a bad hamstring injury while James Maddison is continuing his rehabilitation after his cruciate ligament injury. Fans got excited after seeing the England international working with a ball again but you need only look at Dragusin to see how long the process still took after that point to know that Maddison will be aiming to be back just before the seasons ends if he and the medical department believe he is ready to.
Ben Davies' ankle injury looked awful and the Welsh left-back, who is out of contract in the summer, required surgery soon after so is not expected back any time in the near future.
Bye Bissouma
If Yves Bissouma thought he might get back into the Champions League squad after his recent Premier League appearances then he would have discovered this week that it was not the case.
The Mali international has started Tottenham's past two matches and came off the bench at half-time in the game before simply because of the lack of available players in the centre of the pitch. However, some of those players have started to return and Gallagher has joined so the 29-year-old's game time will start to shrink again, barring further injuries.
If Tottenham do progress in the competition though, he could get Premier League minutes here and there as Frank will be forced to rotate his side.
Bissouma's contract is up in the summer but Spurs are believed to have an option to extend it by a year which they are likely to do to ensure they at least get some money for a player who cost them £30million originally from Brighton.
New youngsters out
There's no place for Souza in the Champions League squad which was likely with Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence able to play at left-back.
It was also entirely expected but there was no room for young January arrivals Mason Melia and James Wilson in Frank's Champions League squad.
The two 18-year-old strikers, signed from St Patrick's Athletic and Hearts respectively, would have had no expectation that they would be in the squad but it was confirmed with Friday's announcement. The duo and Souza cannot go on the B list of young players the club can draft in because you need to have been at the club for two years to do so.
Between them the pair have played almost 150 games of senior football so their time could well come for Spurs and both will likely get first team training time while hopefully bagging goals aplenty for the U21s in the remainder of the season.
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