There’s a strange situation at Tottenham right now in that the club’s captain and most decorated player has just six months or so left on his contract.
Hugo Lloris is not winding down his career. The World Cup winner is arguably in the most consistent form for the north London club than he has been in years.
Yet next month, Lloris – who turns 35 on Boxing Day – will be able to speak to foreign clubs about a free transfer in the summer.
Despite playing 388 times for Tottenham, being a near ever-present starter and keeping 132 clean sheets for the club, Lloris has not been offered a suitable new contract in half a decade.
His last new contract was signed in December 2016, a five-and-a-half year deal penned back then and without an option within it for the club to extend it, it finally runs out next summer.
Spurs have always been reluctant to dish out big new contracts to players over 30, with those deals handed out previously often being for just a year with the option for another.
The club finally broke that unwritten rule for both Toby Alderweireld and Moussa Sissoko in recent years, with big longer-term contracts, only to be burned in both instances with the duo having to be sold eventually for nominal fees last summer.
That may have contributed to a reluctance to offer Lloris a suitable new deal, yet the Frenchman should be treated as a special case.
Goalkeepers have a far longer shelf life and in the Spurs captain’s case he is still in top condition and that elbow injury that kept him out for three months in the tail end of 2019 ended up providing something of a reset and recharge to his career.
Lloris has done little wrong since and has certainly shown no signs of declining reflexes or ability.
He is also something Spurs cannot boast few of – a winner.
Conte has arrived at the club and instantly taken a liking to the experienced Frenchman and the former Inter Milan and Chelsea boss rates him highly.
While Spurs are still yet to formally offer Lloris a new deal, football.london understands that it is Conte who has been speaking to the goalkeeper about the situation, wanting him to remain at the club beyond next summer.
The Italian said publicly last week that it was a subject for another day but behind the scenes has shown has made it clear that he is keen to keep the Frenchman.
Lloris has previously stated a wish to play his final years back home in France, while there have also been links with Major League Soccer in the USA.
Spurs are understood to be hopeful though that the Conte effect will convince Lloris to remain beyond next summer.
The Italian head coach has won over everyone within Hotspur Way, from players to club staff, with his energy levels, passion and drive.
For Lloris much could depend on that long gap between contracts and how much the club truly fights for him to stay. Some inside Spurs believe the ability and importance of the club captain has been underestimated over the years.
Lloris himself has stated in recent months very clearly that there has been nothing on the table from the club to keep him in N17.
Conte could help push this along. Spurs signed his compatriot Pierluigi Gollini last summer on loan from Atalanta with a view to him eventually becoming their captain’s successor.
However, Lloris has not shown any evidence that he needs to be succeeded and the Italian keeper has had to be content with minutes in the cup competitions, without particularly catching the eye yet other than a save in the penalty shoot-out win against Wolves in the Carabao Cup.
Conte wants to change things at Tottenham and pull them up to his level and in Lloris he sees a similarly driven figure who cannot stand apathy.
The Frenchman’s honest and brutal monologue following the embarrassing collapse in Zagreb last year showed his feelings clearly towards the decline of the club and the mentality within it.
Mauricio Pochettino was close to the club captain, stating that he was practically another member of his coaching staff, while both Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo looked to Lloris to guide the group of players.
The goalkeeper will have been at Tottenham for almost a decade by the time his current contract is set to come to a close.
He captained the team through the highs of those four years in the Champions League, including reaching the final in 2019, and has been their most consistent player throughout the decline in the years since.
If anyone deserves the chance to enjoy what Conte can bring it’s Lloris, but Tottenham need to make that effort to keep him because – like another French ex-Spurs player back in the public eye right now once said – he’s worth it.
(Football London)
