Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit, hands on face, could not stop his laughter as he heard Hugo Lloris’ story of losing the Champions League final.
On talkSPORT Drive with Darren Bent, Jason Cundy read an extract from Lloris’ autobiography, where the former Spurs captain revealed a story that had him doubting the club’s winning mentality.
“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.”
Upon hearing this story his fellow countryman – and former Gunners star – Petit failed to hide his amusement as he held his hands on head.
“I cannot believe it,” he said on talkSPORT.
“We in the national team received two beautiful watches after we won the World Cup and and after we won the European Championship in 2000 – but that was after!
“Who offers you a watch before you play the final and says you’re a finalist, not the winner? This was a terrible mistake and this shows me the mentality at Spurs, that they never win anything.
“You don’t do it before, you know? You do it after. I’ve never seen that before.”
Ironically, as this conversation advanced, Spurs conceded their first goal to Turkish side Galatasaray in the Europa League, a match they eventually lost 3-2.
An event which caused even more laughter amongst the radio hosts – a former Arsenal player [Petit], an Arsenal fan [Bent] and an ex-Chelsea defender [Cundy].
Within the autobiography, Lloris also said that if they had won the final the players would have given the watches back and asked for it to be engraved with “Winner”.
In 2019, Tottenham had the perfect opportunity to quench their thirst for a trophy with the potential to win a competition their fierce rivals Arsenal have never won.
The former Spurs keeper also had the opportunity to add another major gong to his cabinet following France’s second World Cup win in 2018.
Tottenham secured their ticket to the final in Madrid in style thanks to a Lucas Moura hat-trick in the second leg away from home against Ajax.
A 3-2 win was enough to go through on away goals, a rule that has now been removed from the competition.
Unfortunately for Spurs, the final got off to a very bad start, conceding a penalty scored by Mohamed Salah in the second minute after a controversial handball call on Moussa Sissoko.
Liverpool then sealed the deal in the 87th minute when Mauricio Pochettino’s team failed to clear the ball from a corner, allowing Anfield cult hero Divock Origi to drive a low shot past the left hand of Lloris into the corner.
Troy Deeney also gave his opinion on the watch debacle, telling talkSPORT that he’s surprised Lloris kept this story to himself for so long, rather than calling it out.
The former Premier League striker said: “Is he not the captain? Winners, finalists, it’s a phrase that doesn’t change whether you got there and you were part of it, so I find it interesting a year after leaving and a book coming out these things are coming out.
“There’s so many things he could have done. If it was me, the owner is calling a meeting, the first thing as captain, you go, ‘About what? What do you want to talk about? How does this impact what we’re going to do moving forward?’ You can challenge the manager on that.
“Oh he wants to talk about watches. If you’re so concerned about the final, don’t worry, we’ll figure that out later, that’s a distraction.
“Let’s play the opposite side of the coin – your owner doesn’t think you’re going to win and you’ll go to a one-off final, biggest game of your life.
“You didn’t prove him wrong and now all of a sudden it’s not sat right with us. It’s going to take four years to talk about it. Don’t wait to write a book four years later, then go, ‘It didn’t sit right with me’. Do something about it.”
Spurs have been on a trophy drought for 16 years since their league cup victory in 2008, when they beat Chelsea 2-1 thanks to a winner from Jonathan Woodgate.
You would have to go back decades further to discover their last league win in 1961, when they also won the FA Cup.
The word “Spursy” has become synonymous with never winning anything – a curse which has followed the club longer than the lives of its young fans.
When asked about the mentality of Spurs and his matches against them, Petit said: “We knew that it was one of the biggest games of the season, but we knew that we were so confident on getting results all the time because to be honest with you, without the respect I have for Spurs, back in the day we were better than them.”
