FORMER Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris is convinced Ange Postecoglou can end his old team’s trophy drought, but has preached patience from both the club and its supporters.
Spurs boss Postecoglou masterminded the best victory of his tenure on Saturday with a remarkable 4-0 win away to Premier League champions Manchester City.
The thrashing occurred a fortnight on from a shock home loss to Ipswich, which sparked murmurs of discontent among a fanbase desperate for silverware and eager for consistency after up-and-down results this term.
Lloris spent 12 seasons at Tottenham before his departure last year and captained the club in three unsuccessful finals, but feels the current crop can go one better and win a first trophy since 2008.
“I spent six months in the changing room, I was not even involved but I could enjoy the football vision of Ange and I still believe and I am still convinced you have to stick with this way and trust the process,” Lloris told the PA news agency.
“The team and club is in a good position, they have talented players, different ages, different experiences but I still believe they can achieve something and win something.
“Part of the football world today, you have to deal with this expectation and I just hope and you don’t want to see the team affected by these things or the club affected.
“They have to be strong and stay together and make [as] one in the club. And also I would say the fans need to trust the process because what we see, we enjoy.
“That is the football we want to see them playing and it’s not because of one bad result or two bad results that we need to question everything. You have to look about medium to long-term because I believe they can do it.”
Across 447 appearances for Tottenham, Lloris always preferred to look forward rather than back.
However, the World Cup winner has spent much of the last year being forced to reminisce for his new autobiography titled Earning My Spurs and published on November 7.
While Lloris never planned a book, journalist Vincent Duluc twisted the goalkeeper’s arm in 2023 and 10 sessions later the result is a detailed look at his whole life.
From his early years at Nice and Lyon to his record-breaking spell with France, the book covers a wide range of topics and extracts recently made headlines in England.
Lloris’s autobiography revealed how a luxury watch to the whole Spurs squad from chairman Daniel Levy with the engraving of “finalist” before the Champions League final stunned him.
But the 37-year-old has not experienced any pushback for any of the content in a searingly-honest memoir.
“No, but there was a lot of noise about the Champions League episode,” Lloris said.
“To be honest, there is nothing bad about that, especially because I have so much respect for the club and also for Daniel Levy but at that time it was a bit weird.
“The only thing I meant is the club never used to be in that position and probably we didn’t do things in the right way. It’s as simple as that.”
Nevertheless, Lloris’s fondness for Tottenham shows in a book which not only offers praise for his successor in goal Guglielmo Vicario but detailed gratitude to Levy for “the sort of goodbye I’d dreamed of,” in reference to his farewell presentation on December 31 against Bournemouth.
When Lloris signed for Spurs in 2012, the club had not yet built its 62,850-seater stadium and only qualified once for Europe’s elite competition during the previous 50 years.
Lloris, who joined MLS side Los Angeles FC after leaving the Premier League, reflected: “I gave 12 years of my career to the club and I am proud of it, you know?
“And today I just support the club, I love the club and I just want to wish them and see them succeeding.
“I hope it will come but I am also proud because I was part of the group of players that make the club evolution. When I signed for the club and when I left, it’s a totally different club.
“Step by step we become even more competitive and put the club in a better position. I think today the club has everything and is strong enough to succeed.”
