Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit of Pau Lopez during the summer transfer was one of the more eyebrow raising successful chases of the summer. Mauricio Pochettino and Spurs didn’t particularly need such a good third choice goalkeeper, and for the player himself it was curious.
Last season Pau had been getting games for Espanyol, and the expectation was he could again this season, at least in cup competitions. Roberto had been brought in by manager Quique Sánchez Flores, but Pau was expected to fight against him and he’d be far more likely to win that battle than the one at Tottenham.
Pau Lopez will certainly have a much harder route to the team at Spurs than he’d have ever had at Espanyol, so he’s certainly not moved to get regular first team football, not at this stage of the 21 year old’s career anyway.
Over the past few days Espanyol’s director of sport has spoken to the Spanish media about Pau, and Diario La Grada, who specialise in Espanyol, believe he’s been quite revealing. Angel Gomez explained: “Quique was clear, Roberto is a good goalkeeper and Pau was of the house (from the youth team) and we were confident in their projection, so we understood that there was no headline goalkeeper.
“The coach, as usual, wanted the one he had more confidence in to be the starter, but after this Pau wanted to go. I did not like the position he took.”
Diario La Grada believe Gomez thinks Pau didn’t want to fight for his place, and therefore jumped ship… to a club where there’s no need to worry about fighting to get in the first team, because that space very much belongs to Hugo Lloris.
