Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit can’t stop laughing at the embarrassing Tottenham story

Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit, with his hands on his face, couldn’t stop laughing when he heard Hugo Lloris’ story of losing the Champions League final.

On 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.

6

6

“Four days before the final, Daniel Levy called us all together to announce that, with the support of a sponsor, we would each receive a luxury aviator’s watch from the club.

“At first we were excited to see the elegant boxes. Then we opened them and discovered that he had the back of each watch engraved with the player’s name and ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’

“Finalist. Who does such a thing at a moment like this? I still haven’t gotten over it, and I’m not alone.”

Hearing this story, his compatriot – and former Gunners star – Petit could not hide his amusement as he held his hands to his head.

“I can’t believe it,” he said on talkSPORT.

“We in the national team received two nice watches after we won the WC and and after we won the EC in 2000 – but that was after!

“Who offers you a watch before you play the final and says you’re a finalist, not the winner? This was a terrible mistake and it shows me the mentality of Spurs that they 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 against Turkish side Galatasaray in the Europa League, a game they eventually lost 3-2.

An event that brought even more laughter from the radio hosts – a former Arsenal player (Petit), an Arsenal fan (Bent) and an ex-Chelsea defender (Cundy).

6

Within the autobiography, Lloris also said that if they had won the final, the players would have returned the watches and asked to have it engraved with “Winner”.

In 2019, Tottenham had the perfect opportunity to quench their thirst for a trophy with the potential to win a competition that their bitter rivals Arsenal have never won.

The former Spurs keeper also had the opportunity to add another big gong to his cabinet following France’s second World Cup win in 2018.

6

Tottenham secured their ticket to the final in Madrid in style thanks to a Lucas Moura hat-trick in the second leg away to Ajax.

A 3-2 win was enough to go through on away goals, a rule that has now been removed from the competition.

Unfortunately for Spurs, the final got off to a very poor start as Mohamed Salah conceded a penalty in the second minute following a controversial handball call on Moussa Sissoko.

Liverpool then sealed the deal in the 87th minute when Mauricio Pochettino’s side failed to clear the ball from a corner, allowing Anfield cult hero Divock Origi to drive a low shot past the left hand of Lloris into the corner.

Troy Deeney also gave his opinion on the watch debacle, telling talkSPORT he was surprised Lloris kept this story to himself for so long, rather than speaking it out.

The former Premier League striker said: “Isn’t he the captain? Winners, finalists, it’s a phrase that doesn’t change whether you got there and you were part of it, so I find it interesting a year after leaving and a book comes these things come out.

6

6

“There are so many things he could have done. If it was me, the owner calls a meeting, the first thing as a captain you say, ‘About what? What do you want to talk about? How does it affect what we’ want you do forward?’ You can challenge the manager on that.

“Oh, he wants to talk about watches. If you’re so worried about the finals, don’t worry, we’ll find out later, it’s a distraction.

“Let’s play the opposite side of the coin – your owner doesn’t think you’re going to win and you want to go to a one-off final, the biggest game of your life.

“You didn’t prove him wrong and now suddenly it’s not right for us. It’s going to take four years to talk about it. Don’t wait to write a book four years later and then move on,” It did ‘don’t sit right with me’ Do something about it.”

Spurs have been on a 16-year trophy drought since winning the League Cup in 2008, beating Chelsea 2-1 thanks to a winner from Jonathan Woodgate.

You would have to go back decades further to discover their last league win in 1961, when they also won the FA Cup.

The word “Spursy” has become synonymous with never winning anything – a curse that has followed the club 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 biggest games of the season, but we knew we were so confident of getting results all the time because to be honest with you, without the respect I have for Spurs, back then we were better than them.”