How Daniel Levy's luxury gift for Spurs stars before Liverpool Champions League final backfired
Hugo Lloris was part of the Tottenham side that lost the Champions League final five years ago and the decisions taken by Daniel Levy before the match didn't sit well with the goalkeeper
by Samuel Meade · The MirrorHugo Lloris has hit out at Daniel Levy's decision to gift Tottenham's players luxury watches for reaching the Champions League final - claiming it showed the lack of winning mentality.
The north Londoners made their first ever European Cup final back in 2019 as they enjoyed a historic route to the final, seeing off the likes of Manchester City and then Ajax in dramatic circumstances in the semi-final.
They would face Liverpool in an all-Premier League encounter and the Tottenham squad received gifts from Levy before the final had been played. They each were given Aviator watches with the words "finalist" engraved.
Tottenham's run to the Champions League final had covered for their poor league form and they were well beaten by Liverpool in Madrid. Mohamed Salah scored an early penalty before Divock Origi converted late on to make the game safe. Lloris though felt the club - specifically the chairman - acted in a way that accepted second best.
In his new book serialised in The Guardian, LLoris wrote: "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."
The French goalkeeper admits he's never worn the watch and Levy cannot have been surprised to see his team trailing just minutes into the final after his decision to rewarded them for simply making the showpiece event.
Tottenham, who haven't scaled those heights since, were left to lick their wounds but Lloris observed in the aftermath of defeat that numerous individuals associated with the club "were not sufficiently despondent at having lost" despite missing out on Europe's greatest prize.
The former No 1 added: "When I returned to my room on the night of the final, I think I had the same feeling as Mauricio (Pochettino) and Harry (Kane): does the club really want to win? Real Madrid would never have celebrated a lost final, and we shouldn’t have either."
Pochettino was sacked just months after the Champions League final and Tottenham haven't had a manager last longer than two seasons since his departure. They've also rarely threatened to win any silverware, their best effort coming when they were beaten in the Carabao Cup final in 2021.
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