Matthew Chadder

Sat 24 June 2023 7:10, UK

Tottenham are reportedly on the verge of completing the signing of goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, according to Fabrizio Romano.

Hugo Lloris has been Spurs’ number-one goalkeeper for a decade and club captain for eight years. Therefore, anyone who comes in will have very big shoes to fill between the sticks.

It will be weird for fans of the club to see someone else lining up consistently in goal for Premier League fixtures and many younger fans will have never seen anyone else but Lloris starting week in and week out, that is how long he has been in North London.

However, with the Frenchman’s future uncertain and a decline in form, his last-ever appearance in Tottenham colours could well have come on 23 April when he conceded five in the first half at Newcastle. Not the best way to bow out.

And now it seems the club are on the verge of announcing the World Cup winner’s replacement, with the signing of Vicario reportedly all but sealed.

This is according to Italian journalist Romano who tweeted the famous three words – “here we go” – on 22 June.

“Guglielmo Vicario to Tottenham, here we go! Agreement completed after official bid sent for the Italian goalkeeper to join Spurs on €19m deal,” Romano tweeted (22 June).

“Vicario joins after an excellent season at Empoli — he will be in London in the next hours to sign a contract until 2028.”

While this is by no means an official announcement, it seems likely now that Vicario will be the club’s new number-one and stats suggest the Empoli goalkeeper will be an upgrade on Lloris, who was quite clearly past his best, but only very slightly.

As per stats provided by FBREF, last season Vicario conceded fewer goals per 90 (1.26) than Lloris (1.59) despite playing in a much worse team as Empoli finished 14th in the Serie A.

Although Lloris made slightly more saves per 90 (3.15) compared to his potential replacement (3.07), Vicario had a higher save percentage of 73.9 per cent compared to Lloris’ 68.6 per cent.

Vicario has an impressive penalty save percentage of 0.03 per 90 which placed him in the upper 30 per cent of goalkeepers in Europe’s top five leagues in regard to this particular statistic.

A key upgrade from Lloris to Vicario is how much more comfortable the Italian goalkeeper is with the ball at his feet. Empoli’s number one would attempt 35.77 passes per 90 putting him in the top eight per cent of his positional peers in Europe. Meanwhile, Lloris ranked in just the 22nd percentile of European keepers, attempting 22.07 passes per 90.

There were some areas where Lloris was better last season, however. The 36-year-old stopped 6.5 per cent of the crosses he faced, while Vicario prevented just 5.6 per cent in comparison.

As well as this, Lloris was much more comfortable as a sweeper keeper. The former France captain was in the top 25 per cent for European keepers for defensive actions made outside the penalty area (1.38 per 90), while Vicario was in the bottom 22 per cent (0.71 per 90).

There could be multiple reasons for these statistics. For example, Spurs at times may have played a higher line than a side like Empoli who would often be on the back foot, meaning Vicario had fewer reasons to leave his penalty area.

However, overall it doesn’t seem Vicario is the best option Spurs could have signed. Perhaps he will improve with time if he completes his move to the Premier League or he might have been signed because he suits the system new manager Ange Postecoglou is set to implement.

But when Tottenham were heavily linked with someone such as David Raya, it would be hard for fans to not feel underwhelmed if this signing is confirmed and as if Daniel Levy has once again gone for the cheaper option.

In other Tottenham news, Paul Robinson has said results must come first for Ange Postecoglou.