Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit can't stop laughing at Tottenham's embarrassing story
Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit, with his hands on his face, couldn't help but laugh as he heard Hugo Lloris' story about losing the Champions League final.
In talkSPORT Drive with Darren Bent, Jason Cundy Read an extract from Lloris' autobiography, where the former Spurs captain revealed a story that made him doubt the club's winning mentality.
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“Four days before the final, Daniel Levy called us all together to announce that, with the support of a sponsor, each of us would receive a luxury pilot's watch from the club.
“At first, we were excited to see the elegant boxes. Then we opened them and discovered that the back of each watch had engraved the player's name and '2019 Champions League Finalist.'
“Finalist. Who does something like that at a time like this? I'm still not over it and I'm not alone.”
Upon hearing this story, his compatriot and former Gunners star, Petit could not hide his amusement as he put his hands to his head.
“I can't believe it,” he said on talkSPORT.
“We, in the national team, received two beautiful watches after winning the World Cup and after winning the European Championship in 2000, but that was after!
“Who offers you a watch before playing the final and tells you that you are a finalist, not a winner? It was a terrible mistake and this shows me the mentality of the Spurs, who 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 progressed, Spurs conceded their first goal to Turkish Galatasaray in the Europa League, a match they ultimately lost 3-2.
A fact that caused even more laughter among the radio hosts: a former Arsenal player (Petit), an Arsenal fan (Bent) and a former Chelsea defender (Cundy).
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Within the autobiography, Lloris also said that if they had won the final the players would have returned the watches and asked for them to have “Winner” engraved on them.
In 2019, Tottenham had the perfect opportunity to quench their thirst for a trophy with the potential to win a competition that their fierce rivals, Arsenal, have never won.
The former Spurs goalkeeper also had the opportunity to add another major gong to his cabinet following France's second World Cup victory in 2018.
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Tottenham got their ticket to the final in Madrid in a big way thanks to Lucas Moura's hat-trick in the second leg away from home against Ajax.
A 3-2 win was enough to qualify 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 to Moussa Sissoko.
Liverpool then sealed the deal in the 87th minute when Mauricio Pochettino's side failed to clear the ball in a corner, allowing Anfield cult hero Divock Origi to fire low past Lloris's left hand into the corner.
Troy Deeney also gave his opinion on the watch debacle, telling talkSPORT that he is surprised Lloris kept this story to himself for so long, rather than reporting it.
The former Premier League striker said: “Isn't he the captain? Winners, runners up, it's a phrase that doesn't change if you got there and were part of it, so I find it interesting a year after I left and a book that is coming.” These things are coming out.
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“There's so many things I could have done. If it were me, the owner calls a meeting, the first thing you do as captain is, 'About what? What do you want to talk about? How does this affect what we do?' What are you going to do to move forward? You can challenge the manager on that.
“Oh, he wants to talk about watches. If you're so worried about the final, don't worry, we'll figure it out later, that's a distraction.
“Let's play the other side of the coin: your owner doesn't believe you're going to win and you'll go to a unique final, the most important match of your life.
“You didn't prove him wrong and now all of a sudden it doesn't sit well with us. It's going to take us four years to talk about it. Don't wait to write a book four years later and then say, 'It didn't happen like that.' “.Do something about it.”
Spurs have been trophyless for 16 years since their League Cup victory in 2008, when they won Chelsea 2-1 thanks to a winning goal from Jonathan Woodgate.
You would have to go back decades to discover their last league victory in 1961, when they also won the FA Cup.
The word “Spursy” has become synonymous with never winning anything, a curse that has haunted the club for longer than the lives of its young fans.
When asked about Spurs' mentality and his games against them, Petit said: “We knew it was one of the most important games of the season, but we knew we were very confident in getting results all the time because, to be honest , “Without the respect I have for the Spurs, we were better than them in the past.”
