Tottenham duo left out of Conference League fixtures amid transfer speculation

Tottenham England’s inaugural Conference League member

2020-21 was not a good season for Tottenham Hotspur. Reaching a Carabao Cup final, they sacked Jose Mourinho just six days before the fixture, before going on to lose the encounter.

While Spurs fans will cling to the fact that they finished above north London rivals Arsenal, they still missed out on Europa League football, having to settle for seventh place in the Premier League.

As a result of this, they will be the Premier League club with the dubious honour of representing the division in the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League, where they enter in the second round.

With Roma (and former boss Jose Mourinho) perhaps the only other club of similar stature in the tournament, it represents a fantastic opportunity to finally bring silverware back to the white half of north London.

However, Spurs have a qualifying tie against Pacos de Ferreira to contend with before they can even think about silverware, and are heading to Portugal for the first leg on Thursday.

Aurier and Ndombele left out of travelling squad

Nuno Espirito Santo has named his Tottenham squad ahead of the two legs, and perhaps surprisingly, has omitted two first-team players from his 25 man squad.

Both Serge Aurier and Tanguy Ndombele have been left out of the manager’s squad, with neither side named in Tottenham’s squad against Manchester City either. Ndombele has been a part of preseason, but did not play a single game despite being fully fit amid transfer speculation.

Meanwhile, Serge Aurier claimed he had plans to leave north London this summer, with a return to PSG seemingly on the cards. Since then, however, PSG have signed Achraf Hakimi, leaving Aurier in limbo having burned his Spurs bridges.

Bizzarely, Harry Kane has been included in the squad, despite ongoing rumblings about his future. Kane was also absent for the opening game against Manchester City, but will seemingly be involved against the Portuguese side.

Could this hint at a stay this summer