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Who will win out in the battle to be Spurs’ number one?

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Transfer deadline day brought some special players to the Premier League but arguably one of the best deals and players that arrived in the Premier League is Hugo Lloris, the France international goalkeeper and captain, who moved to Tottenham Hotspur from big French club Lyon for around £8 million. As Lloris is well known as one of the best keepers in the world you would expect he would walk straight into Villas-Boas’ Tottenham team. However, this certainly isn’t the case as Brad Friedel currently holds the position and certainly doesn’t look like he will give it up lightly.

At the age of 41, people have anticipated Friedel’s decline for quite a few years but throughout the last few years Friedel has perhaps been at his peak. Friedel has begun this season in excellent from and has arguably been the best goalkeeper in the whole of the Premier League. So why do Spurs need Lloris and what is going to happen for the rest of the season?

Friedel, although still excelling, must reach the point fairly soon in which he can no longer perform at the tremendously high level he has set over his career. I feel Friedel will retire when he can no longer perform at the highest possible level. Who better to take over than a goalkeeper with one of the best reputations in the world, Lloris?

Although Friedel may not be ready to give up the jersey just yet, with world class competition in the form of Lloris, Friedel’s game will have to remain at the incredibly high-level it currently is. When Friedel’s decline begins Villas-Boas will be able to speed up the process of taking Friedel out and installing his long-term successor rather than waiting until the next transfer window.

Also, Lloris wasn’t going to remain at Lyon for long, as the French club have a reputation for selling their best names when Europe’s big clubs come calling. So if Spurs were going to sign Lloris then now was the only possible time, as they may have been blown out of the water by clubs such as AC Milan when next summer came around.

I feel that it would be highly unjust for Lloris to start Tottenham’s next few games, as Friedel has earned himself a large claim to the Number One jersey and I feel that, despite Deschamps’ comments regarding Lloris being too good for the bench, Lloris has a few months to adjust to English lifestyle and football under the guidance of one of the best goalkeepers there has ever been in the English game.

This transfer shows Andre Villas-Boas is thinking towards the future as he prepares for life after and maybe while Friedel is around, but it will certainly be a large test of AVB’s man management skills to keep two world-class keepers happy.

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