Tottenham aren’t doing enough to punish Hugo Lloris
Hugo Lloris has done a lot for Tottenham during his career, but Spurs are being too kind to him in the aftermath of his drink driving incident.
Tottenham have, admittedly, been put in a tough spot by Hugo Lloris. He’s been an outstanding servant of the club for a number of years, but there can’t be any excuse for driving under the influence of alcohol. Unfortunately, it seems that Spurs are set to come down too light on their French captain.
Reports from England claim Lloris will maintain his spot in the starting XI at Manchester United on Monday. From a tactical perspective, this is great news for Spurs fans. With all due respect to Michel Vorm and Paulo Gazzaniga, Lloris is clearly the club’s best option in goal. Starting him at Old Trafford will give Mauricio Pochettino’s squad the best chance to win.
That doesn’t mean it’s the right choice by the club. Some things in life are more important than football. This happens to be one of those things. Tottenham should have higher expectations of all of their players. The fact that Lloris made such a poor choice as the team’s captain means his punishment should be the most severe of all.
Allowing him to start the next match after his arrest sends a poor message to Spurs supporters. Pochettino and the rest of the higher-ups at Tottenham will surely sanction Lloris internally, but nothing can compare to forcing him to miss a primetime Premier League fixture. Simply put, forcing Lloris to miss Monday’s match is the most severe punishment available to the club. It’s a sanction the club should absolutely.
Defenders of the Tottenham policy will claim that stripping Lloris of the captain’s armband in the future will be enough to teach Lloris a lesson. In fairness, that is going to sting the French keeper. He’s an immensely prideful player who takes that honour very seriously.
Next. Tottenham projected starting XI at Manchester United. dark
It’s still not enough to punish his crime. The act of changing captains is too subtle for the offense. Lloris should be punished by being forced to watch his teammates compete on the pitch without him. That, and only that, would be enough to force others to learn from Lloris’ mistakes. That should be Tottenham’s goal here, and they’ve failed to do enough.