It’s the day before a Europa League away match in Hungary, so that means it’s time for Tottenham Hotspur to do some fun social media postings ahead of tomorrow’s match against Ferencvaros. That often means the traditional Players Getting On the Plane social video, and in this we were not disappointed today.
These are often fun because it gives us a chance to see who’s physically on the plane and allows us to speculate on what tomorrow’s lineup will be. And we get some nice shots of players boarding the plane including James Maddison, Pedro Porro, Sergio Reguilon, Dejan Kulusevski, Mikey Moore, Micky van de Ven, and…
Wait a minute. Pan right and pull back. Stop. Enhance 34 to 46. Pull back. Go right, stop. Enhance 57 to 19. Track 45 left. Stop. Enhance 15 to 23.
Give me a hard copy right there.
What the crap?! What’s Reggie doing there?
The truth is we don’t know, but that didn’t stop certain Too Online™ Spurs fans from having a right proper meltdown about Reguilon joining the squad for a Europa League away fixture. It wasn’t helped after a popular Twitter aggregator (which I will not link to) speculated that the reason Reggie was there is because he’s taken the spot of Wilson Odobert who is also (also unconfirmed) out for a longer period of time than first reported. This has made those fans Extremely Mad™ because they assumed Reggie’s inclusion comes at the “expence” (pun very much intended) — again — of Djed Spence.
But here’s the thing — Spurs can’t do that, even if they wanted to. The club has already submitted their List A roster for the group round of the Europa League and they can’t adjust that for any reason (other than a catastrophic virus that only targets club keepers) unless and until Spurs qualify for the next round of the competition.
Here are the appropriate rules in that regard, taken from UEFA’s website.
31.09 List A must be submitted online by the following deadlines:
5 July 2024 (24:00 CET) for all matches in the first qualifying round;
19 July 2024 (24:00 CET) for all matches in the second qualifying round;
2 August 2024 (24:00 CET) for all matches in the third qualifying round;
16 August 2024 (24:00 CET) for all matches in the play-offs;
4 September 2024 (24:00 CET) for all matches from the first match in the league phase up to and including the final.31.10 For the qualifying phase and the play-offs, a club may register a maximum of two new eligible players on List A after the above-mentioned deadlines, provided the quota of locally trained players is respected. This registration must be completed by 24:00 CET the day before the relevant first-leg match and the club’s association must confirm in writing that the new player is currently eligible to play at domestic level. If the registration of a new player causes the number of players on List A to exceed 25, the club must remove a player registered previously to reduce the number of players on the list to 25 again.
…
31.14 If a club cannot count on the services of at least two goalkeepers registered on List A because of long-term injury or illness, the club concerned may temporarily replace the goalkeeper concerned and register a new goalkeeper at any time during the season and complete the official registration of List A with a goalkeeper fit to be fielded. An injury or illness is considered long-term if it lasts at least 30 days as of the day the injury or illness occurred. If the goalkeeper recovers before the end of this 30-day period, the player must nonetheless remain off List A until the end of such period. The new goalkeeper does not have to be locally trained, even if the replaced goalkeeper was. The club must provide UEFA with the necessary medical evidence in one of UEFA’s official languages. UEFA may require further medical examination of the goalkeeper by an expert appointed by UEFA at the club’s expense. Once the injured or ill goalkeeper is fit to be fielded again, he can resume his position in place of his substitute. The return of the original goalkeeper must be announced to the UEFA administration 24 hours before the next match in which the original goalkeeper is due to play.
Now, a lot of hay was made about Rule 31.10 which seems to provide a means for teams to replace an injured player with another one, but note that it specifies that this is for the QUALIFYING and PLAY-OFF phases, and we’re now past that. This is the group phase. So no, this doesn’t apply; Spurs can’t just willy-nilly register a replacement for an injured player, because if they could, every single football club in European competition would’ve done that already.
And even if they could, Odobert is (supposedly, unconfirmed) out until November, which means he could participate in the group phase matches that take place in December, 2024 and January, 2025.
The whole thing is stupid and precipitated by an account speculating on rules that do not apply to the situation, and I feel acutely dumber for having to write an article about it.
But, let’s get back to the real issue — what the hell is Reggie doing there? Well, it’s not clear, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? Maybe Ange Postecoglou is trying to reintegrate Reggie into the first team, since his expected transfer didn’t pan out this summer. Maybe he’s filling the Djed Spence role as “speedy fast fullback guy” in training, and Djed’s being left home because a) he’s not in the squad and b) he’s being rested for a possible role in Sunday’s match at Brighton. Maybe he’s there to help unload the plane and get Big Ange a coffee now and then. Maybe he’s just there for the vibes.
Who knows! But I can tell you one thing, he’s not there because he’s taken Wilson Odobert’s place — or Djed Spence’s place — in Spurs’ Europa League side.
