Tottenham Hotspur are set to come under increasing pressure to sell another one of their major stars this summer.
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The North London giants have picked up a reputation as a selling club after offloading many of their key players when some of the world’s biggest clubs came calling with big cheque books and even bigger ambitions.
Is Hugo Lloris set to become the next world-class star to be sold by the White Hart Lane outfit?
The vultures are circling once more, with Manchester United and Real Madrid linked to the France captain.
Will Lloris prove to be a rare exception of a player who resists the shining lights of Old Trafford and the Bernabeu or, like the other players on this list, will he be tempted away from Mauricio Pochettino’s side?
Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick was signed by Spurs in 2004 when he was recruited from West Ham United for £3.5 million.
The move proved to be beneficial for Tottenham both on the pitch and on the balance sheet.
Carrick excelled alongside the likes of Jermaine Jenas and Edgar Davids in the Spurs midfield before moving to Manchester United in £18 million in 2006.
Since then, he has lifted the Premier League crown five times and also won the Champions League in 2008.
Dimitar Berbatov
Dimitar Berbatov broke the hearts of Spurs supporters when he insisted on moving to Manchester United at the beginning of the 2009-09 campaign.
While the money Tottenham received-£30.75 million-was a significant increase on their outlay of £10.9 million for the player, Berbatov’s genius was hard to replace.
The forward scored 27 goals in 70 league games for Tottenham, winning the league cup in 2008.
Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane enjoyed six fine years at Tottenham Hotspur—scoring 82 games in 197 league appearances—before being bought by Liverpool in the summer of 2008.
As with Berbatov and the other players on this list, Spurs initially refused the Reds’ advances, but finally capitulated when the Merseysiders offered £20.3 million for the player.
Keane flopped at Anfield—scoring only five times in 19 EPL outings—before ’pulling a Defoe’ and returning to North London in 2009.
Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale was signed by Tottenham in 2007 when he joined from Southampton for an initial £5million. At times, the left-sider struggled at Spurs—infamously playing his part in a remarkable individual winless streak—but eventually delivered on his early promise.
So much did the Welshman progress—first under Harry Redknapp, then, markedly, under Andre Villas-Boas—that Real Madrid were persuaded to part with a world-record fee—somewhere between €91 and €100 million—for his services.
Luka Modric
Like Bale, Modric was another who was taken to the Bernabeu from White Hart Lane.
The midfielder was denied his move away from North London in the summer of 2011, before finally making the switch a year later for a fee of approximately £30 million.
While the Croatian was a key member of Redknapp’s magical Champions League qualifiers, he has achieved major success at Real—winning the Champions League last year as well as numerous other domestic honours.