Sweeper-keeper: from a young age Lloris has been able to play well with his feet (Peter Tarry)

FROM the moment he met Mauricio Pochettino, “we were connected,” Hugo Lloris says, but ask what makes Pochettino special and the gloves come up, the angle is narrowed, the inquiry is parried.

Lloris is a serious and thoughtful Frenchman. He has considered where he wants interview boundaries drawn and, with sangfroid, holds to these. “I don’t want to cross the line because I could talk about the team and talk about the manager, but in the end we want to keep a lot of things inside,” Lloris says. “The only thing I can say is that if the club is at this level today [Pochettino] has a lot of responsibility for it.

“We are young and we are trying to build up to become a