Hugo Lloris is at the centre of transfer rumours this summer. Announced at Man Utd - if De Gea joins Real - he takes stock of his situation. In his own way: with prudence.
The goalkeeper for les Bleus defends his colleague at PSG - a club he does not see himself joining this summer. The Man Utd trail is much warmer. It's really a good guy.
Q: After three years at Tottenham, do you have the feeling of not having made the right choice of club?
A: No, I've never thought it was a bad choice. It was a natural choice, related to my desire to question myself. I had this opportunity at a good, English club. Well, yes, it's not a club that challenges for the title at the moment, but later, who can say?
Q: You still found what you set out to find?
A: The English don't know you, in the beginning, and that is all part of the challenge. Everyone makes choices and I made mine. I needed that. I always have a need to go look for things, to not wait, to be active. Whatever happens, it hasn't been three wasted years, definitely not. It has been three years in the Premier League, at a club I love, three years of experiences abroad, with everything that brings to the human and family plane.
Q: Have these three seasons been a way to say "I am ready" to the next club?
A: It's only a way to remember that you have a bit more "luggage" and experience. Afterwards, it's always a question of opportunities. But it's my education, my mentality: you make these things. A career, you make that.
Q: Does the fact that we remind you of your short club prize list annoy you?
A: There is always a part to success. You need to be in the right place at the right time. But I still have numerous years in front of me, I continue to develop. We all play to win, it is still necessary to have the means. But there is no rule, there are players who won it all late, which will perhaps be my case (smiles).
Q: So, you don't necessarily want a project with a team for later, with young players?
A: You don't know what will happen. There is one thing that's important: there is a moment to think of yourself, to sit down and reflect, but once that moment is gone and the season begins, you're involved thoroughly in the club, the team.
Q: For you, we are at the moment where it's necessary to reflect...
A: (Smiles) Voilà. But you don't control everything.
Q: There is talk about a clause, an enormous sum of money?
A: That does not even concern me. Honestly, it's a discussion from club to club. Nobody tells me how much I'm worth, and at the same time, I'm not looking to know it.But we are at a time where this is sometimes agitated for nothing, where some numbers circulate to probe the market. It's part of the system.
Q: But after you extended your contract a year ago, there was talk of a release clause of about €35m....
A: That is not true. There is no clause. With my managers, I always liked the direct exchange. It's important to know the people, to feel the culture of the club, to understand how it works. When you have the privilege of discussing directly with your chairman, like I have done with Daniel Levy, that makes things much more simple. Afterwards, I know what we said to each other, and it is a relationship of trust.
Q: Apart from Man Utd in case of De Gea's departure, there is a lot of talk about PSG. Could you come back to Ligue 1?
A: You should never say never, but my ideas are clear in my head, they are the same as when I was 16 or 17 years old. Tomorrow, I don't know, but today, I'm in another logic. And so, it's not just my personal opinion, but I think people have been very hard on Sirigu. I don't know, if it was to destabilise PSG for a moment of the season, but I think he has made some good choices in Paris and that people forget him. Once more, the club is progressing, you feel that the project moves forward, but for me, today, it's out of the question.
Q: You have played just three matches this season with the French national team: Do you think of Barthez?
A: (Laughs) There have been two things: the desire of the manager to give game time to other 'keepers, and some physical problems. A problem with a muscle, a problem with the knee.
Q: Did the knee injury make you scared?
A: In the moment, I thought it was nothing, just a blow. But once the doctor said to me: "Above all, don't move, you'll make the wound bigger", I said to myself that it was more serious. Afterwards, they told me that you could see the tendon, so the wound was deep. In my misfortune, I was lucky, because if the tendon had been touched... Finally, I was unavailable for a month and a half. But yes, I always miss the French national team. And the absent are always wrong.
Q: Even you?
A: I don't know, but I assume that whatever your number of caps, your age, your stature, each match counts. There is always something to win, to go looking for.
Q: We just joked about Barthez, who needed to win and was unable to play two full seasons of a final phase...
A: Perhaps in returning this week, I will say to myself that it did me good. But I find it hard even though the friendlies don't have the same flavour as a qualification phase.
Q: These two matches at the end of the season won't be easy for anyone...
A: It's difficult for everyone. That needs to be considered, the manager knows that. We'll all look for a certain daily freshness to end the season well. Actually, it's a special moment: there are these two matches, the the holidays and then, we'll embark on a long season that will lead is to the Euro 2016. So this is the last moment that's a bit lighter between us. You feel the passion, that is there, which will go up again. I think it will transform positively. To live a big competition at home, that should be brilliant. I think of it seeing the new stadiums. It's going to be great.