Antonio Conte circumspect over Hugo Lloris future but hails his Spurs standing

Antonio Conte is unable to give any assurances over Hugo Lloris’ future but knows the Tottenham captain will never be a problem for the club.

The World Cup winner is approaching a decade at Spurs after he first moved to the north London outfit from Lyon in 2012 but only has six months left on his current deal.

Lloris will celebrate his 35th birthday on Boxing Day and is expected to line up in goal against Crystal Palace after being one of the team’s most consistent performers this season.

Asked if he was concerned about his goalkeeper’s contract situation, Conte said: “Hugo is our captain, he is a player that played for Tottenham for many years and we are all happy to have him in our team, in the squad and in the dressing room.

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“For sure he is a point of reference for the other players and Hugo knows very well what I think about him and what the club thinks about him.

“Now we’ll see but I think Hugo won’t be ever a problem for Tottenham.”

France captain Lloris highlighted his importance to Spurs once more on Wednesday with a string of saves to help them secure a 2-1 win over West Ham in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

Hugo knows very well what I think about him and what the club thinks about him.

It means Tottenham now have a two-legged last-four clash with Chelsea to fit into an already busy schedule in January, which will only increase the demand on the current squad but Conte has not spent much time thinking about the winter transfer window that opens next month.

He said: “Now my focus is to work with the players and to improve the situation. Then for sure we will have a meeting with the club, the sporting director and general director to try to understand if there is the possibility to improve the situation, but now it is good to be focused on the pitch.

“We have an important game against Crystal Palace. Don’t forget Crystal Palace beat us 3-0 (in September) and we have to try to prepare for the game very well because we want to get three points.

“Our focus has to be now on the pitch to overcome this period that is very busy.”

Conte admitted the recent Covid-19 outbreak at the club, which saw the team forced to postpone three games and subsequently thrown out of the Europa Conference League, had contributed towards a lack of conversations over the January transfer window.

But the Italian insists he will not complain if he has to continue working with the present crop of players.

“No, we didn’t discuss until now and didn’t have time to do this for the problem with Covid but for sure we will have a meeting,” Conte added.

“I am a person I try to exploit the situation I find and at this moment the only way to improve Tottenham’s situation is to work very hard with this squad and improve my players.

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“After if we have the possibility to have a meeting and speak, and if there is the possibility for the club to try to improve the team, we do our best but otherwise I will continue to work with the squad to improve my players and try to improve the level of Tottenham.”

Cristian Romero (hamstring) remains absent for Spurs and Ryan Sessegnon is still not fit due to a muscular problem.

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