This article forms part of our Profit Players feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern take a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to judge how good of a deal the club managed to achieve.
Tottenham Hotspur saw a need to spend to improve in the summer of 2012, and handed over £11.8million (BBC) to lure a 25-year-old Hugo Lloris away from Olympique Lyonnais and rival veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel for honours between the sticks in North London.
To keep the price down, Spurs also agreed to a 20% sell-on clause and an upfront instalment of £7.8million, but have never needed to consider the potential implications of the article, as Lloris has been a player Tottenham can rely on time and time again over the last seven years.
In his maiden voyage in England, the Nizza-born ‘keeper upset the apple cart in week 12 of the Premier League season, and would only be dropped once for the remainder of the top-flight term, keeping nine clean sheets (TransferMarkt).
The following campaign saw Lloris start from the off, and again only miss one game amid his ever-present role in goal, this time keeping 14 clean sheets in 37 fixtures – a tally he bettered in 2016/17 and 17/18.
Injuries and issues off the field last season meant Lloris saw his campaign heavily disrupted, but the Tottenham and France captain was still earning the admiration of his manager and teammates when called into action, having helped his country to lift the World Cup in the summer of 2018.
After pulling off a string of top saves to deny West Ham United at the London Stadium, former Spurs right-back Kieran Trippier hailed Lloris as ‘one of the best’ in the world, a sentiment shared by Mauricio Pochettino.
Speaking with talkSPORT last October, Trippier said: “Hugo is, for me, one of the best in the world. You see him year after year, the amount he saves us and the amount of points he saves us.
“Today [at West Ham] was no different, I thought he was outstanding and obviously so were the whole team. But [he made three] crucial saves.”
Any dropped points against their London rival could have hindered Tottenham’s fight for a place in the Premier League’s top-four last season, as the battle went down to the wire, with Arsenal ultimately missing out on the Champions League qualifying spot by a single point.
Lloris ended the term fifth in the top-flight for clean sheets with 12 in 33 games (TransferMarkt), and was clearly missed at the weekend when Tottenham lost on the road to Leicester City, where his understudy was called on for the first time this season.
The Frenchman’s absence from the action at the King Power Stadium on Saturday was for the birth of his child, and in his shoes stepped Paulo Gazzaniga, but the Argentine’s display only served as a reminder as to why Lloris is the number one at Tottenham.
A quick-footed run by James Maddison beyond Harry Winks and Toby Alderweireld left the Leicester midfielder in Tottenham’s area before drilling a low shot in from a tight angle, which Gazzaniga tipped behind for a corner.
The resulting set-piece routine was only partly cleared by Spurs, though, and Youri Tielemans lashed the ball back toward the net with a fierce effort Gazzaniga would fumble into the path Wilfried Ndidi, only for the VAR to save the Spurs’ keeper’s blushes as Ayoze Perez was offside in the build-up.
Gazzaniga’s afternoon would later end with Maddison beating him from range, with the Englishman firing a 25-yard rocket into the corner of the net to eliminate any thought of the 27-year-old’s earlier diving save to deny Jamie Vardy.
So, even at 32-years-old, Lloris is the man to beat at Tottenham, and even his declining market value since lifting the World Cup would see that Spurs turn a profit on the now-£22.5m-rated shot-stopper, per TransferMarkt valuations.
Tottenham fans, is there a goalkeeper you would like to see Daniel Levy target before Lloris is no longer Pochettino’s number one? Let us know in the comments below…
