Hugo Lloris faces a playing exile until January and a jarring end to his stellar 11-year Tottenham career. The goalkeeper, who continues to train with the squad but has had no match-day involvement under Ange Postecoglou, has seen his options dwindle since the closure of the Premier League transfer window last Friday night.
And now, unless he and Spurs can agree a move to a club where the window remains open for a little longer, he will probably be forced to kick his heels until January when the winter window opens.
Lloris, who has one year to run on his Spurs deal, knows that the window in Saudi Arabia’s Pro League closes on Thursday. He has had offers from there but has so far shown no inclination to go. Elsewhere in terms of prominent leagues, the window in Turkey is open until Friday of next week, 15 September.
There has been confusion for supporters over which windows are still open because of how Fifa has presented the information on its registration periods template – known as the Transfer Matching System [TMS] calendar.
The governing body has published the cut-off points submitted to it by each national association. But the latter can set earlier dates for specific competitions. For example, the window in Portugal is listed on the TMS calendar as closing on 22 September. But the top-flight window there actually closed last Friday.
There is frustration at Spurs over Lloris’s situation, the club believing the 36-year-old has had ample time to find a new club. The chairman, Daniel Levy, is believed to have given Lloris, who does not have an agent, his word that he could go on a free transfer.
Lloris said at the beginning of June he had “desires for other things”, it was “the end of an era” for him at Spurs and it was mutually agreed that he could skip the pre-season tour of Australia, Thailand and Singapore to focus on getting a new club.
It did not happen, Lloris turning down not only Saudi but Lazio and, on deadline day in England, his home town club, Nice, where he had started his career. Lloris has explained that Nice’s offer came too late and lacked clarity in a sporting sense.
“The supporters [of Nice] and the team deserve better than a split-second decision based on a phone call without expectations or a clear sporting project with one hour until the closure of the window at a time where I wasn’t expecting it,” he said.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
It was suggested last week that Spurs could reach an agreement with Lloris to terminate his contract, which also did not happen. If it were to do so now – after the closure of the Premier League window – Lloris would not be allowed to join a new club as a free agent until January. Any immediate move would have to be a standard transfer between Spurs and a club in a league where the window remains open.
Postecoglou does have room to include Lloris on his 25-man senior squad list that must be submitted to the Premier League next Wednesday. After moving Davinson Sánchez and Tanguy Ndombele to Galatasaray on Monday, the manager has 17 non-homegrown players (including Lloris) and eight homegrown players – both of which are within the limits.
Yet Postecoglou has made it clear that he does not want three established goalkeepers; he already has the summer signing, Guglielmo Vicario, and Fraser Forster. For Lloris and, indeed, all parties, it is a sad and bizarre story. Unless something changes dramatically, the club captain of the previous eight seasons and a veteran of 447 appearances will be reduced to a training ground support role.
