Ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's opening Champions League game of the season against Villarreal later this month, Spurs boss Thomas Frank has now decided his A-list squad for the league phase, and it includes some notable absentees.

After clinching their first major trophy in 17 years by winning the Europa League in May, Spurs secured themselves passage to Europe's most prestigious competition, and Frank's side have a solid chance of battling their way to the knockouts.

The league phase draw was favourable indeed, barring current European champions PSG, who the Lilywhites already know all too well from their unlucky UEFA Super Cup final loss on penalties.

Tottenham are set for a reunion with Norwegian minnows Bodo/Glimt, months after beating them in the Europa League semi-finals, as well as Eintracht Frankfurt, who they also knocked out of Europe en route to their historic night in Bilbao.

In preparation for their first campaign back in the Champions League since Antonio Conte's era in charge, Frank has been forced to make a few key decisions over who makes their A-list side for the league phase encounters.

Over the summer window, Tottenham had a complication over a lack of players to fill their 'locally trained' quota, which presented the threat of having to register a lesser number of players overall and even prompted Spurs to consider re-signing Kyle Walker-Peters at one stage (Alasdair Gold).

Despite some reports suggesting Tottenham were favourites for Walker-Peters as a viable candidate to be one of their locally trained options in Europe, the right-back ended up joining West Ham on a free transfer instead.

UEFA rules state: “If a club has fewer than eight locally trained players on its List A, the maximum number of players that can be registered on this list is reduced accordingly.”

Their lack of locally trained assets means that Frank was forced to omit a noteworthy number of players, including some big names.

Tottenham omit Takai, Tel and Bissouma from Champions League squad

Tottenham's squad for the Champions League is now in and confirmed, with Frank deciding to snub two summer signings and exit-linked midfielder Yves Bissouma, with the Mali international tipped to leave for Saudi Arabia or Turkey in the coming days (GiveMeSport).

Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma

Indeed, Kota Takai joined Spurs for a J-League record £5 million during the window, but he misses out, as does Mathys Tel, who signed for the north Londoners in a cut-price £30 million move from Bayern Munich.

Injured trio James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin, who are all a long time away from the grass as they recover from their respective problems, were also left out by Frank.

Here is the squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky, Brandon Austin.

Defenders: Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Ben Davies, Micky van de Ven.

Midfielders: Joao Palhinha, Xavi Simons, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert, Pape Matar Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur.

Strikers: Richarlison, Dominic Solanke, Randal Kolo Muani.