Daniel Levy left his Tottenham players baffled before their Champions League final defeat.
Former captain Hugo Lloris has revealed how he was left stunned by the club’s mentality heading into the biggest game in their history, as well as afterwards.
Daniel Levy baffled the Tottenham squad with a gift before the 2019 Champions League final[/caption]
Spurs had sealed a place in their first ever European Cup final with a dramatic comeback victory at Ajax, and the mood was high and hopeful ahead of an all-Premier League showdown with Liverpool.
Ultimately, it was not to be for the north Londoners who were beaten 2-0 at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid back in 2019.
The result – and manner of it, having gone behind 1-0 early in the game via a dubious penalty – destroyed the Tottenham players, with Lloris admitting the spot kick ‘killed’ the game and ‘snatched’ away any chance of the final being competitive.
But, according to the former club captain, you wouldn’t have necessarily known they had just lost the Champions League final after the game given the reaction from some behind the scenes.
And it was a gesture from Levy before the match that left the World Cup winning goalkeeper and some of his teammates thoroughly confused, and wondering whether Tottenham were happy to just be runners-up.
The Spurs chairman surprised the squad with a luxurious gift ahead of the showpiece – each player was given a watch with their name and “Champions League Finalist 2019” engraved on the back.
However, Lloris admits he has never worn it.
Writing in his autobiography, via The Guardian, 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.”
On the reaction following the defeat, Lloris added: “At the post-match reception at the hotel, I had the impression that some people from the club and certain players were not sufficiently despondent at having lost.
“I would have liked people to come up to me and say, ‘Don’t worry, Hugo. Never again. We’ll give you the means for a comeback.’
“But 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.”
Lloris spent over 11 years at Spurs before moving to LAFC in January this year.
During his time in north London, the French goalkeeper made 447 appearances for the club.
He never won a trophy, though, with Spurs having not lifted any silverware since 2008.
Lloris did reach three finals, finishing as runner-up in the Carabao Cup twice, as well as the Champions League defeat to Liverpool.
Meanwhile, Levy has been Spurs chairman since 2001, overseeing their rise into the Premier League’s ‘big six’ and move to a new stadium.
Under Levy, the club have competed in the Champions League six times, having previously not appeared since 1962, but they have only experienced top flight European football once in the last five years.
