Graham Carr recommended that Newcastle United sign Hugo Lloris before the goalkeeper ended up joining Tottenham Hotspur.
That is according to I News, which notes that the Magpies’ former chief scout also alerted the club to the likes of Eden Hazard and Raphael Varane.
Hugo Lloris, perhaps surprisingly, remains on the books at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The 36-year-old has lost his place as number one and as captain. Nevertheless, he was unable to find a suitable move away from North London over the summer transfer window.
Newcastle were alerted to Hugo Lloris before Tottenham move
But that should take nothing away from the fact that Lloris has been one of the best goalkeepers the Premier League has had over the last decade.
He has been an amazing servant for Tottenham, making 444 appearances for the club in all competitions. Many of those have seen Lloris wearing the captain’s armband.
But perhaps events could have played out differently had the Newcastle hierarchy listened to Graham Carr. According to I News, the former chief scout made the Magpies aware of Lloris while he was a youngster.
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Newcastle would obviously miss out. And Tottenham would end up signing Lloris for around £12 million 11 years ago.
Newcastle have had some decent goalkeepers since then. Tim Krul, Martin Dubravka and Nick Pope have all some bright moments on Tyneside. And Pope has obviously been performing at a much higher level than Lloris for some time now. But clearly, Lloris had been one of the very best in the world for most of those years.
He was ‘fantastic‘ during his time as Tottenham’s number one. Spurs have done well to find their replacement. But it did take them some time to move Lloris out of that prominent position. And coincidentally, his most recent appearance for the club came against Newcastle.
It would have been fascinating to see how things could have been different had Newcastle signed Lloris and Tottenham had to look elsewhere for their long-term number one.