Former Tottenham star questions club’s mentality as trophyless spell continues

Former Tottenham Hotspur captain Hugo Lloris has questioned the club’s winning mentality as he shared a story about Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.

Lloris was the captain of the Tottenham Hotspur side that reached the club’s first-ever Champions League final in 2019, where they faced Liverpool following a memorable three-goal comeback against Ajax in the semi-finals.

However, the London club failed to make history as Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool were dominant from the start and went on to win the match 2-0 thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi.

In his autobiography, Lloris, who is now playing with LAFC in Major League Soccer, revealed that after beating Ajax, Spurs chairman Levy gifted their entire senior squad luxury watches with the words ‘Champions League finalist’ engraved.

Hugo Lloris of Los Angeles FC (Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images)

Lloris has now claimed he was miffed with this gesture on the eve of the final.

In his autobiography, Lloris said: “We do all have one engraved memory, though. Four days before the final, Daniel Levy called us all together to announce that, with the support of a sponsor, we would each receive a luxury aviator watch from the club.

“At first, we were excited to see the elegant boxes. Then we opened them and discovered that he’d had the back of each timepiece engraved with the player’s name and ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’. ‘Finalist.’ Who does such a thing at a moment like this? I still haven’t got over it, and I’m not alone.

“If we’d won, he wouldn’t have asked for the watches back to have ‘Winner’ engraved instead. I have considerable respect and esteem for the man and all he has done for the club as chairman – I got to know him – but there are things he is simply not sensitive to. As magnificent as the watch is, I have never worn it.

“I would have preferred there to be nothing on it. With an engraving like that, Levy couldn’t have been surprised if we had been 1–0 down after a couple of minutes: so it was written.”

Lloris added: “At the post-match reception at the hotel, I had the impression that some people from the club and certain players were not sufficiently despondent at having lost. I would have liked people to come up to me and say, ‘Don’t worry, Hugo. Never [lose a final] again. We’ll give you the means for a comeback.’

“But when I returned to my room on the night of the final, I think I had the same feeling as Mauricio [Pochettino] and Harry [Kane]: does the club really want to win? Real Madrid would never have celebrated a lost final, and we shouldn’t have either.”

Lloris has since start a new career in the MLS with LAFC while Daniel Levy remains the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur.