What Xavi Simons transfer means for Tottenham's homegrown problem and Champions League squad

Xavi Simons will be named in Tottenham's Champions League squad after completing his transfer from RB Leipzig but Thomas Frank has other decisions to make

Tottenham Hotspur are set to sign Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig in a deal that will excite the supporters and require further decisions for Thomas Frank over his squad.

Spurs look set to seal the €60million (£52million) signing of the 22-year-old Netherlands international to fill the void in creativity left by the long-term injuries to James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski. Simons , who is expected to sign a five year deal with an option for a further two seasons after being impressed by Frank and his project ahead, will bring a huge boost in quality to Frank's squad

His arrival will add to the earlier £55million move for West Ham attacker Mohammed Kudus , the loan of Joao Palhinha from Bayern Munich and the £5million transfer for Japan international centre-back Kota Takai from Kawasaki Frontale. Mathys Tel's loan move was also made permanent from Bayern.

So with further moves for another winger and a centre-back set to be attempted in the remaining days of the transfer window, how does all of that affect Spurs' long-standing squad issues that has seen players left out every season from their European squad?

Here's what it means for both their Premier League and Champions League squads once Simons seals his move to north London.

Premier League

Simons and Palhinha must be added in now, while Son Heung-min, Fraser Forster, Timo Werner, Alfie Whiteman, Sergio Reguilon, Josh Keeley and Alejo Veliz have all come out of the squad from last season. Two players must come out of the Under-21s list and into the main lists in Antonin Kinsky and Matthew Craig, although we can assume the latter will not be part of the first team squad this season so we're not going to include him here.

In all Spurs have 17 non-homegrown players with Simons' arrival when they can only register 17, but there is still space here for a new signing or two, especially if they sign a homegrown player and when you look at players who could depart like Bryan Gil, Yves Bissouma and Manor Solomon.

That's mainly because a club's Under-21 players do not need to be included on their 25-man squad list yet are eligible to play in the Premier League. To be considered an Under-21 player for this current Premier League season, players must have been born on or after January 1, 2004. That means Tel and Takai do not have to be registered in the main squad and Yang-min Hyeok, Luka Vuskovic, Ashley Phillips, Alfie Devine, Jamie Donley, George Abbott, Alfie Dorrington and Mikey Moore, who would have qualified, have all headed out on loan.

It also appears that Kevin Danso qualifies as a homegrown player in Premier League terms because he was in the youth academies at Reading and MK Dons for years before leaving England at the age of 16 and later returning for a season at Southampton.

The Premier League rules state that "a 'Home Grown Player' means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21)."

With that in mind, here's how the club's Premier League squad looks right now. It shows that players must leave before any more can be registered, unless they are in the under-21 bracket.

Premier League non-homegrown players (17 currently, 17 maximum allowed): Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky, Pedro Porro, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Joao Palhinha, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison, Pape Matar Sarr, Manor Solomon, Bryan Gil, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons.

Premier League homegrown players (Seven currently and eight minimum required): Dominic Solanke, Kevin Danso, Brandon Austin, Ben Davies, James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Djed Spence.

Notable Under-21s players: Kota Takai, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel, Dane Scarlett.

Champions League

If you've followed this all before you know that is the part where it gets horrendously messy. The European squad has been an area that has been a constant problem for Spurs and will continue to be for a while longer until the recent batch of 18-year-old signings eventually become B list players after two years and then become club-trained players three years down the line from when they joined.

The major issue in the Champions League, as it was in the Europa League last season, lies in the fact that UEFA's rules state that no club can have more than 25 players on their A-List during the season, of whom at least two must be goalkeepers. The rules then say that "as a minimum, eight of those 25 places are reserved exclusively for 'locally trained players' and no club may have more than four 'association-trained players' listed among those eight places. If a club have fewer than eight locally trained players in their squad, then the maximum number of players on List A is reduced accordingly".

So what is a locally-trained player? There are two different kinds. One is 'club-trained players', those players on a club's books for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21. The other is 'association-trained players', who were on another club's books in the same association for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21. Danso will not fit into that latter category because he left England at the age of 16.

Then there is a B-List for players born on, or after, January 1, 2004 and who have been eligible to play for the club for any uninterrupted period of two years since their 15th birthday – or for a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be submitted if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years without interruption.

So with all that in mind, Spurs' Champions League squad in its current state is pretty huge and running over in both non-locally trained spots and association trained ones.

That they only have one club-trained player in goalkeeper Brandon Austin now when they need to register four, means Tottenham would have to leave three spots open in what should be a 25-man squad, but instead immediately becomes a 22-man one.

So with the addition of Simons, Palhinha, Kudus and Takai, Spurs have 22 players to fit into 17 non-locally trained spots and six association-trained players for those four other spots. Any association-trained players over those four spots at the end of the window would need to be crowbarred into the main group although Maddison is likely to be kept out for the league phase at least with his ACL injury. Decisions will also have to be made over Radu Dragusin and Dejan Kulusevski and their potential return dates from their ACL and patella injuries respectively.

The simplest way to look at it is that right now Spurs have 28 senior players to fit into 21 spots, keeping Austin aside, and that's before they even try to sign anyone else in the remaining days of the window.

Tottenham need to get plenty of players out of the door this summer and that's why you could well see some surprise departures in the weeks ahead and expected ones, plus loans aplenty or players having to face being left out of the Champions League squad for the knockout stages at least.

Spurs need a bigger squad to compete in all four competitions but they just don't have the club-trained numbers to make that work in Europe.

European non-locally trained players (22 currently, 17 maximum): Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky, Pedro Porro, Kevin Danso, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Joao Palhinha, Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison, Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Mathys Tel, Manor Solomon, Bryan Gil, Kota Takai, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons.

Association trained players (six currently, four can be used in exclusive slots): Dominic Solanke, Ben Davies, James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Djed Spence, Archie Gray.

Club trained players (1 currently, four required): Brandon Austin.