Barcelona are said to have rejected the opportunity to sign the ‘keeper prior to him signing for Tottenham Hotspur. So does the fact Barca didn’t want him say anything about his goalkeeping pedigree, or did they simply just not need him?
Hugo Lloris is considered among the top five goalkeepers in the world. With Joe Hart, Manuel Neuer and Marc Andre ter Stegen he is challenging the old guard of Petr Cech, Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon for the coveted crown of the ‘golden gloves’ of world football.
However he has had a slightly tumultuous time of it lately becoming the centrepiece of an across table club-country debate between his club manager Andre Villas-Boas and Les Bleus Directeur Didier Deschamps.
He has had to play second fiddle to Premier League favourite Brad Friedel until recently, as he usurped the American for their recent Premier League fixture with Aston Villa.
He is a confident stopper and is fighting hard for his first-team spot with the veteran custodian ahead of him as AVB insists he can rotate the keepers effectively.
After the international break it will be intriguing to see whether the Gallic stopper can continue to fend off his American counter-part between the sticks but while Spurs clearly saw the potential in the French captain, Barcelona did not.
According to reports in Spain from Catalunya Radio; Lyon approached the Spanish giants with the opportunity to take Lloris off their hands. Barcelona were reportedly keen to bring in a new stopper as Pinto nears retirement and Victor Valdes who is prone to make critical errors has no obvious challengers to his position.
Barcelona however, despite the more then reasonable price, declined the option; wishing to focus on their current number one custodian for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps they didn’t want to pay the price knowing he would be second choice behind Valdes, such is their perhaps misplaced faith in him.
While Lloris may be slightly over-rated, he is not as over-rated as Barca’s number one-stopper. However Valdes is a La Masiaista and with that comes his understanding of the Barca total-football and his excellent distribution skills and calmness on the ball, something that got him into trouble with Angel Di Maria at the beginning of this season.
Victor Valdes may be playing for one of the best teams in Europe but Lloris is a better stopper and in this case, as rare a statement as this may be, Barcelona’s loss will be Tottenham’s gain as Hugo Lloris has the potential to become a great stopper for years to come.
What are your thoughts on Victor Valdes and Hugo Lloris?
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