Lately, some sources have claimed that Hugo Lloris could be set to leave Spurs at the end of the season, favouring a return to his native France, to see out the rest of his career.
So, if this is to be the end of Lloris at Spurs, where does he rank in the all-time Spurs goalkeepers, and can he be considered a club legend?
Well, let’s firstly look at the facts. Over his time at Spurs, which has spanned nine years, the current skipper has racked up over 350 appearances. To put this into context, he is only around 100 appearances behind the great Pat Jennings, who spent thirteen years at the club.
It has been clear that from the moment we signed the Frenchman from Lyon for a shrewd £11.8m, Lloris has gained the trust of all of the managers he has played under.
In all competitions, Lloris has also recorded 124 clean sheets, meaning that over a third of games in which he has been between the sticks have resulted in the team not conceding a single goal.
If we compare that with other recent Spurs goalkeepers, Paul Robinson only recorded clean sheets in 29% of his games, with Brad Friedel’s clean sheet percentage at 28%.
So, the stats would certainly indicate that Lloris’ record is one to be remembered. But what about his overall performance?
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When I think of Lloris, two things come to mind. Firstly, the man is one of the world’s greatest shot-stoppers. In particular, the wondrous goal-line save against Bayer Leverkusen stands out.
In equal measure, Lloris has been susceptible to more than the odd clanger during his Spurs career. Therefore, he could go down as one of the most frustrating goalkeepers in history, such is his ability to make both great saves and commit disastrous mistakes.
What else must be taken into consideration is the history that Lloris has made whilst at Spurs.
Many people will argue that Lloris, like all Spurs players of the past decade, has been part of a squad to not lift a trophy, but this in itself does not mean that he cannot go down in Spurs folklore.
History is relevant to the club you are discussing. For your Man United’s and Liverpool’s, legendary status often revolves around their most famous winners. Unfortunately, Spurs are not yet that calibre of club, so this must be taken into account.
Taking into account the context of Tottenham over the past 20 years or so and the journey they have gone on, Hugo Lloris will forever be remembered as a pivotal fixture of change between the sticks.
He was with Spurs through the transition years with Pochettino that proved to be so instrumental to the club reaching that ‘next level’.
In truth, the Frenchman could have left for a big Champions League team numerous times during the peak of his career, yet he remained loyal to a club that was not delivering trophies at the time.
In brutal honesty, Spurs, for a long time, had a keeper who was better than the average standard of the squad.
Of course, Lloris has proved his ability to win major honours in a world-class team, as he lifted the World Cup with France in 2018. This goes to show that Tottenham had a keeper good enough to win trophies all along, so how can we judge him on a lack of silverware in a Spurs shirt?
If you need to lift a trophy to be a Tottenham legend then Spurs have barely had one in 20 years. Are we really saying that Lloris is not a club legend at the moment but would be if he lifted the Carabao Cup this season? That is absurb.
No, Hugo Lloris is a club legend because he is just that, a club legend.
For so many years, he has been an incredible keeper and leader on the pitch for Spurs. He gave the club the prime of his career when bigger moves would certainly have been available.
In my mind, this ticks all the boxes. Both on an emotional level and performance level, Lloris is a Tottenham legend through and through.
HUGO! HUGO! HUGO!
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