Ange Postecoglou brutally axes two first-team players as Tottenham squad for Europa League confirmed

Ange Postecolglou has brutally axed two players from his Tottenham Hotspur squad for the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.

Spurs had to submit their squad to UEFA by the end of Wednesday and had to cut two stars in order to comply with various regulations.

Postecologlou had to leave out Spanish left-back Sergio Reguilon and English full-back Djed Spence due to restrictions.

A new squad list can be submitted with a handful of permitted changes if Spurs advance past the league phase where they will face Qarabag, Ferencvaros, AZ Alkmaar, Galatasaray, Roma, Rangers, Hoffenheim and Elfsborg.

UEFA squads differ to Premier League squads as they include main squad and a B-list. The latter can only include players under the age of 21 who have spent at least two years of the club, meaning summer signings Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall had to be registered on the main list.

When it comes to the 25-man main squad, UEFA rules also state 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 has fewer than eight locally trained players in their squad, then the maximum number of players on List A is reduced accordingly."

There are two types of locally-trained player. One is 'club-trained players', who were on the club's books for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.

Djed Spence has been left out of Tottenham's Europa League squad. [Getty]

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.

Spurs have only two of the four required club-trained players in Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman, so were forced to reduce their squad to 23 players.

They also had seven association-trained players, of which only four can go in their own category.

The other three had to be placed into the main group but there was only one spot left in that group.

Spence has made two substitute appearances in the Premier League this season while Reguilon has not featured in a matchday squad after spending last season on loan at Manchester United and Brentford.

Tottenham's squad is as follows:

Goalkeeper: Guglielmo Vicario, Fraser Forster, Brandon Austin, Alfie Whiteman

Defenders: Radu Drăgușin, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, Ben Davies, Micky van de Ven

Midfielders: Yves Bissouma, James Maddison, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Dejan Kulusevski, Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert, Pape Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur

Forwards: Son Heung-min, Richarlison, Timo Werner