Tottenham Hotspur: Mauricio Pochettino perplexed at Eric Dier's non-homegrown status

Mauricio Pochettino is left astounded by UEFA's stipulations with regards to homegrown players, which has put a massive stretch on Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League squad, leading to him having to omit Argentine Erik Lamela from the squad for the group stages.

According to the Uefa rule, there can be 17 non-locally trained players in a squad with eight players stipulated to be homegrown in the 25-man squad.

The Tottenham manager, who is set to take on Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on Wednesday (13 September), has been handed a massive setback with Eric Dier being considered a non-homegrown player as per the guidelines.

Dier will take up a spot in the 17-man non-homegrown list which does not leave any space for Lamela, who is expected to be back in the squad in November after recovering from injury.

Dier was born in England but eventually emigrated to Portugal as a child, where he was raised and led into professional football. He is also accounted for as a non-homegrown player in Spurs' Premier League squad.

Ben Davies is another player who is not considered homegrown due to his roots in Wales, though he is in line with the Premier League rules.

"It's true that our problem was to have had 19 players that did not count as homegrown for the Champions League squad [including Lamela and Janssen]. It's unbelievable that Eric Dier is not homegrown when he's playing for England. That is so strange, no? It kills a little bit our possibilities," Pochettino said, as quoted by The Guardian.

Pochettino will be without Danny Rose for the game, with Spurs still to put a time frame on a return for the defender. Rose has not played since January and has also undergone knee surgery in the summer.

Meanwhile, Serge Aurier could make his debut against the Bundesliga giants. The deadline day arrival from Paris Saint-Germain was named on the bench against Everton but did not come on with Kieran Trippier completing the match.