Former Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris has launched a scathing attack on club chairman Daniel Levy in his new autobiography.
The French goalkeeper spent 11-and-a-half years with Spurs – eight of those with the captain’s armband – before eventually leaving to join MLS side LAFC in January 2024.
Though he found success with his national side during his career, such as winning the World Cup in 2018, Lloris failed to clinch a trophy during his time in north London.
Two Carabao Cup final defeats and a loss in the Champions League final to Liverpool still haunt the Frenchman, which he reflected upon openly in his new book.
When talking of the clash against the Reds in 2018-19, Lloris discussed an incident that occurred four days before the final that he still hasn’t ‘got over’.
Former Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris launched an attack on club chairman Daniel Levy
Lloris questioned the chairman’s mentality leading up to the 2019 Champions League final
Levy gifted players luxury watches with the word ‘Champions League finalist’ engraved just days before their match. (Pictured: The IWC Pilot watch released a month before the final)
In his new book, Hugo Lloris: Earning my Spurs, he explained: ‘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’.
Back in 2018, Tottenham announced IWC Schaffhausen as their ‘Official Timing Partner’ – which is likely the reason they were gifted the luxury watches.
When former players Jan Vertonghen and Michel Vorm left the club back in 2020, they were also gifted luxury watches from the same brand.
Ultimately, Spurs fell short in their pursuit of the Champions League title after a 2-0 defeat by Premier League rivals Liverpool.
Lloris was unable to prevent Tottenham from losing 2-0 to Premier League rivals Liverpool
The north London side went 1-0 down inside the first 30 seconds and failed to recover
When Michel Vorm (left) and Jan Vertonghen (right) left the club, they were also gifted watches
They went 1-0 down inside 30 seconds after Moussa Sissoko was judged to have handled the ball inside the box and spent the remainder of the match knocking on the door of a resolute Liverpool defence.
Eventually, super-sub Divock Origi confirmed the defeat with a late strike that Lloris was unable to stop.
That final seemingly derailed Mauricio Pochettino’s project at Tottenham and in the years that followed, Spurs failed to emulate the same success that they had in the early years under the Argentine.
It’s a matter that Lloris also discussed in his autobiography and the Frenchman suggested that the Amazon documentary series – titled ‘All or Nothing’ – played a big factor in their downfall.
‘Tensions that would only grow following a decision by the club which would affect the team’s day-to-day lives; a decision made without the consent of either the squad or the manager: to install cameras everywhere for Amazon’s series about Spurs.
‘In light of the sum mentioned – around ten million pounds – we wondered whether those whose season and activities would be affected, all those being asked to mic-up each day, would get a cut. The answer wasn’t slow in coming: no.
‘So when the film crew placed little microphones on some of the canteen tables, we went and sat at other ones. We had to be careful all the time. The only place where we could speak freely was the training dressing room – we’d got them to agree that it would remain out of bounds.
Lloris also questioned the club’s decision to partake in an Amazon ‘All or Nothing’ series
The Frenchman was club captain at the time and admitted it felt like an invasion of privacy
‘Otherwise, they had mics and cameras everywhere – even at some practice sessions, which was no small matter: it was a constraint and it had consequences’.
Fan favourite Pochettino was sacked in the early stages of that season and was swiftly replaced my Jose Mourinho – who also struggled to get the best out of Tottenham’s stars.
Lloris remained an integral member of the Spurs side in the years that followed, up until Ange Postecoglou’s arrival in 2023, where he quickly fell out of favour.
After failing to make a single appearance in the first half of the campaign under the Australian, he eventually joined MLS side LAFC in the January window at the start of this year.