West Ham United goalkeeper Alphonse Areola will be delighted by Fabrizio Romano’s Spurs update overnight.
The Hammers and rivals Tottenham Hotspur came close to welcoming a couple of World Cup winning goalkeepers back to London last month.
Tottenham star Lloris was the France captain and his understudy is West Ham’s giant goalkeeper Areola.
Although Areola is clearly going to be West Ham’s long-term number one over the next four or five years, he is having to be patient with Lukasz Fabianski rarely putting a foot wrong.
Areola has also had to accept his place in the pecking order with France, understandably playing back-up to Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris given what he has achieved with his country.
The West Ham and Spurs stars won the World Cup with France in 2018 but Areola did not play a single minute.
And it was almost the same story in Qatar with Didier Deschamps electing to wrap number two Areola in cotton wool in case anything should happen to Tottenham star Lloris when he gave 37-year-old Steve Mandanda a run out in a dead rubber final group game.
So Areola will be delighted by Fabrizio Romano’s Spurs update and now he just has to become West Ham’s number one.
Taking to Twitter last night Romano – quoting L’Equipe – revealed that Tottenham’s number one has retired from international duty.
2Hugo Lloris announces his international retirement, as L’Equipe reports,” Romano said on Twitter.
“The French goalkeeper leaves after great World Cup in Qatar.”
West Ham’s Areola may not be too enthralled by what his Tottenham counterpart has had to say about who should succeed him, though.
Speaking about his retirement after 145 caps for France, Lloris said you “have to know when to pass the glove”.
And he believes AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan is “ready” to step up to the number one spot (L’Equipe).
Of course it will be impossible for Areola to stake his claim for Lloris’ vacant number one jersey unless he is number one at West Ham.
Many fans believe that should already be the case. But David Moyes has made it clear Fabianski remains West Ham’s number one right now.