Tottenham do not have profile to win Champions League every season – Lloris

Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris says his club are still not built to win the Champions League, despite their run to the final last season.

Spurs got to the showpiece event in Madrid for the first time in their history and against all odds as Mauricio Pochettino led the club further in Europe than any other manager.

They ultimately fell just short against Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium and the challenge now is to prove that was not just a one-off as this season’s competition gets under way.

Greece Soccer Champions League

Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris laughs as he listens a question ahead of the Champions League match against Olympiacos (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

Lloris will lead his side out at Olympiacos in their Group B opener and said: “I think with a lot of humility there are some clubs that have the profile to win Champions League every season.

“Historically and with the talent they have in the squad.

“They put a stamp on this competition. That’s not the case for Tottenham.

“But as we saw last year, everything is possible if you have the belief, the talent and the discipline. Why not be back again?

“But obviously we have a different profile to that type of club – Juve, Barca, Madrid, Bayern. That type of club.

“It’s not a lack of ambition. When we go on the pitch, it’s to win, whoever is the opponent in front of us. We don’t want to look too far forward.

“Those type of things you can spend energy on and you can leave an accident.

“The best way is to focus on game one. Then game two. Then game three.

“Step-by-step to build your ambitions, as we did last season. The main thing is to go through this group stage.”

Spurs’ squad is still full of talent and the likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-min and Jan Vertonghen are reaching the peak of their careers.

And Lloris is hoping they can all play their part to help Spurs get over the line and win a trophy.

“Now we’ve arrived at an age where we’ve got the experience to have an impact towards the team,” he added. “Hopefully we will go in the same way.

“I always used to repeat: when you arrive at a level, the important thing is to do everything to stay at the same level, especially the level we arrived at last year, as the runner-up of the Champions League, to be the fourth time in a row qualified for the Champions League.

“It’s not a coincidence. We’re doing something well, we’re building something strong.

“But we cannot drop the level. We need to build the consistency to improve, to get even closer to what we are all looking for – trophies.”

FourFourTwo Staff

FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.