Tottenham director of football Fabio Paratici has been told that Spurs need to upgrade on Hugo Lloris. The 35-year-old goalkeeper faces an increasingly uncertain future in north London after having entered the final two-years of his contract.
He's featured nine times for Antonio Conte's side in the Premier League this season, keeping three clean sheets. Lloris' impressive performances have guided Tottenham into the top-three, while also boasting one of the best defensive records in the league.
However, despite his eye-catching saves, the France international has become subject to criticism, with Gabriel Agbonlahor speculating as to whether he's the best option for Spurs. Speaking on TalkSPORT Edge, the former Aston Villa striker claimed that the Tottenham captain 'isn't as good as people think'.
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Agbonlahor suggested that Spurs should look at Jordan Pickford, who is valued at £22million by CIES Football Observatory, as Lloris' successor. When asked whether who he'd rather between the sticks, he replied: "Pickford. I’m not a fan of Lloris to be honest. I don’t think he’s as good as people think on the ball."
While Lloris may be in the latter stages of his career, goalkeepers are known to enjoy careers well into their late thirties. The Frenchman, who is quite clearly a leader in the dressing room, is set to be 37-years-old once his deal at Tottenham expires.
Following Spurs' North London Derby defeat, Lloris rallied Conte's troops together and sent the squad a warning. Perhaps the shot-stopper is a leader that the Italian boss can not afford to lose.
He said: "The taste of the defeat is something we don’t want to feel again. Every defeat is painful and if we want to continue to grow as a team then we have to take this feeling and change it as possible.
"As soon as you lose one game, you have to bounce back as a team and make a run of good results to change this feeling," Lloris added. "We have to respond in the best way because the best answer we can give is to win the next few games. But even when we were getting good results we were the first to say, as players and manager, that there was a gap to improve and we are still looking for improvements.
"This season is very long, it’s a marathon and when you face an opponent like Arsenal then it’s important if you can’t win then you must not lose the game and unfortunately we couldn’t do that. But there’s still plenty of games ahead of us, it’s always disappointing for the players, for the fans obviously, because these games mean a lot. But now we must respond by putting a lot of energy and focus and we must get a good run of good results."
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