Jose Mourinho admits ‘hard decision’ on Joe Rodon today

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has told Football.London that he has left Joe Rodon out of the Europa League squad.

Spurs have named their 25-man squad for the knockout stages of the competition, with the two-legged clash against Wolfsberger to come later this month.

There has been something of a shock in the squad though, as Mourinho hasn’t added Rodon to his ranks for the latter stages of the competition.

The Welsh centre back arrived too late in October to be registered for the group stage, a situation he admitted last month was ‘frustrating’.

Rodon has played in the Premier League regularly of late, but that still didn’t tempt Mourinho into adding him to the Europa League squad.

So just why has Rodon been left out? Well, Mourinho feels it would have been unfair to add him at the expense of a player who played in the group stage.

Mourinho believes that it would be harder for a player who was in to be left out, rather than leaving out Rodon again, who was already out anyway.

Japhet Tanganga wasn’t allowed to leave on deadline day, so he is in the squad rather than Rodon, meaning the ex-Swansea man’s frustration will continue until the summer.

“We didn’t. We didn’t,” said Rodon. “You know, a hard decision but a decision where we wanted to show respect for the group. We wanted to show respect to the people that started the competition. It would be very, very hard for the group to cope with one of the players who was involved to be out.”

“We kept Tanganga in spite of good possibilities the kid had to go out on loan. We kept him because then Tanganga, Davinson Sanchez, Dier, Alderweireld. We have to do it without Rodon.”

“We believe that by the emotional impact it has less impact on a player who was not part of the squad to stay out until the end of the season than a player who was part of it, a player who played in the group stage, to get him and to change him. We decided to not go in that direction so it’s Joe the player who is still out,” he added.