Hugo Lloris details Ange Postecoglou conversation when he knew his Tottenham career was over

Hugo Lloris admits he felt transparent in this final months at Tottenham Hotspur and has spoken about the conversation when Ange Postecoglou told him he would not play for the team again.

The former Spurs captain, who left in January after 11 years in north London, had already signalled his intention to leave the club after the previous season as he looked for a fresh challenge in his career. Lloris could not find the right move that suited him and his family until the offer to head to Los Angeles to join MLS side LAFC came along midway through the next campaign.

While Postecoglou and Lloris both had mutual respect for each other, the changing of the guard had already happened at the club with Guglielmo Vicario coming in as Tottenham's goalkeeper for the present and future. Lloris admitted that he felt like an outsider looking in at times towards the end of his career in N17.

In an interview with Le Parisien, Lloris spoke about the final 12 months of his time at Spurs, which came after the World Cup final defeat to Argentina in Qatar.

"In January [after the World Cup], I knew it was going to be difficult, I was going to have to grit my teeth, but I planned to rely on the collective. I had already experienced some down moments in my career, because we can't always be in the sky, we're still human," he said.

"When the team is doing well and performance is there, individual failures are not noticed, but there, my teammates were in the same state of psychological fatigue as me, and it got to me. I took refuge in work, thinking that things would be better in February. Except that, when my sensations returned, my body gave up.

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"The first time, after I received a knock during a match against Manchester City, I felt my right knee twisting: tear of the external ligament, eight weeks off, and the second, just a few weeks after my return to the field, in April 2023, a tendon in my hip. This injury, initially psychological, marked the end of my season."

On the end of his Tottenham tenure, he said: "It was a combination of several factors: the team was lacking results and the coach [Antonio Conte], under pressure, was losing patience. Therefore, the group dynamic was negative. Tottenham were coming to the end of a cycle, and so was I. During my first injury break, I only wanted to come back and help the club achieve its goals, but, after the second, there was no longer any issue.

"I knew that Tottenham wanted to recruit younger players, especially in my position. Summer was approaching and I was no longer part of the plans. When the championship resumed, in August 2023, the coach informed me that I would no longer enter the field, that I would only be a training player. I was pushed aside, I had become transparent."

He added: "Those eight months without playing were complicated. Since I've been playing football – and I started at the age of six – I've been thinking about the upcoming match, planning for the next goal. When all this collapses, we no longer know how to make sense of physical effort: why hurt ourselves? Why push yourself to come back?

"However, I was not unhappy. I took the opportunity to spend more time with my family and it did me good. I was able to celebrate my father's 70th birthday and go see my brother play in Le Havre, against PSG. It would have been impossible if I had been on a team sheet at Tottenham.

"One day, I know, football will stop for me. I will perhaps miss the adrenaline, because it is a drug, but I am not afraid of this 'little death' as they call it in the sporting world. There is an afterlife, and I can't wait to know it too."

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