Antonio Conte remains hopeful that Tottenham and Hugo Lloris will be able to reach an agreement over a new contract for the Frenchman.
Lloris, 35, has entered the final six months of his contract and is now able to discuss an end-of-season free transfer with foreign clubs.
One of those he has been linked with is boyhood club Nice, where Lloris came through the academy and then spent three years in the first team before making the move to Lyon in 2008.
Lloris joined Spurs in 2012, and helped the club become a regular in the Champions League under Mauricio Pochettino, who guided them to the final of that competition in 2018-19.
The shot-stopper was made Tottenham captain in 2015, while he has worn the armband for his country since 2012, leading Les Bleus to World Cup glory in 2018.
But while Lloris has previously been maligned for being error prone, he does appear to have improved in that regard in the past few seasons.
Between 2015-16 and the end the 2018-19 Premier League season, Lloris' 25 errors leading to shots equated to 0.18 per 90 minutes – among goalkeepers to play at least 3,500 minutes in that time, only Asmir Begovic averaged more errors (0.2) each game.
Since then, he's only committed three and none of those have been this season – indeed, his eight clean sheets in 2021-22 is bettered by just Ederson (11), Aaron Ramsdale and Alisson (both nine), though Lloris' five since Conte's first game in charge is not improved on by anyone.
This season, only five goalkeepers (minimum 200 minutes played) boast a better save percentage than Lloris (71.01 per cent), and Conte is convinced an agreement can be found to take him into an 11th year at the club.
Speaking after Spurs' dramatic late 1-0 win at Watford, Conte told reporters: "You can see the level of the keeper in these circumstances, when, for the whole game, [Lloris] didn't make a save, but he continued to be focused for the team.
"For me, that's very important. The 'keeper has to follow the game and not only stay on the goal line to make saves.
"Hugo showed [on Saturday] that he's top and he's always focused.
"For us, he's very important, and I'm sure that in a short time he can find a [contract] solution with the club, because he loves Tottenham and Tottenham loves him."
Lloris is already the goalkeeper with the most Premier League appearances for Spurs (316), 76 more than Ian Walker.
Brazil to host 2027 Women's World Cup
Brazil have seen off competition from a joint bid by Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany to earn the right to host the 2027 Women's World Cup.
The United States and Mexico were thought to be favourites to host the next edition of FIFA's showpiece women's football tournament, but they withdrew their bid in April.
They signalled their intention to focus on a bid for the 2031 tournament, while a South African bid for the 2027 event was also withdrawn last November.
That left Brazil and the joint European bid as the only contenders, and on Friday, it was confirmed the 2027 tournament will be the first to be held in South America.
"Congratulations to Brazil," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.
"We will have the best World Cup in Brazil. Many thanks as well to the BNG bid, who have been fantastic."
The decision was made at FIFA's annual congress in Bangkok, becoming the first Women's World Cup to be awarded via an open vote of member nations.
Brazil – the host nation for two men's World Cups in 1950 and 2014 – garnered 119 votes to their rivals' 78.
Brazil had launched a bid to hold the 2023 tournament, only to withdraw it due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Australia and New Zealand ultimately co-hosted, with Spain beating England in the final for their first world crown.
Tuchel confirms Bayern Munich exit after no deal reached to stay on
Thomas Tuchel has confirmed he will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season after failing to reach an agreement with the club to stay on as coach after talks this week.
Tuchel took over last March and steered them to the Bundesliga title last season but Bayern will finish the current campaign without any silverware for the first time in more than a decade.
Bayern bosses had informed Tuchel in February he would not stay on for the last year of his contract and would leave at the end of the season.
But after several prospective successors, including Julian Nagelsmann, Ralf Rangnick and Xabi Alonso, decided to remain in their current jobs, Bayern turned to Tuchel to discuss the possibility of him staying on.
"This is the last press conference here. The February decision remains," Tuchel said on Friday.
"There were talks again with the club in the past week but we did not reach an agreement on a continued cooperation so we stick with the February decision.
"We did not agree but I won't go into individual points. That all happens behind closed doors."
The Bavarians, who travel to Hoffenheim on the last matchday of the season on Saturday, are battling to hold on to second place in the table and are two points ahead of Stuttgart.
They crashed out to third-tier Saarbrucken in the DFB-Pokal and were eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, ending the campaign without a trophy despite spending a league-record €100 million to sign striker Harry Kane.
"The decision for me to leave was taken in February so you can imagine that my head, after processing, was 1000% behind that decision," Tuchel said.
"There was the theoretical possibility of a 180 degree turn now and the initiative came from the club.
"The reasons why it did not happen, I don't know, are minimal. Maybe the reasons are not clear, also for the decision in February, but it is what it is."
Klopp: Premier League cannot continue with current version of VAR
Departing Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp would vote to remove VAR in its current guise from the Premier League, though he also believes officiating standards are a problem.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that Wolves – who have been on the wrong end of several contentious decisions this season – had tabled a motion to abolish VAR from the top flight.
The club listed several "negative consequences" brought on by the technology's introduction, including an impact on in-stadium atmospheres, diminished accountability of match officials and its role in furthering "completely nonsensical" allegations of corruption from fans.
The role of VAR is now set to be discussed at an annual shareholders' meeting on June 6, though Wolves' motion is thought unlikely to garner the 14 votes needed to pass.
Liverpool were on the wrong end of perhaps the most high-profile VAR error this season, when Darren England mistakenly cleared an incorrect offside call on a Luis Diaz goal against Tottenham.
Liverpool face Wolves in their final game under Klopp on Sunday, and the Reds boss believes they are right to say VAR is not working in its current guise.
"I don't think they're voting against VAR, I think they'll vote about how it gets used, because that's definitely not right. I understand that," Klopp said.
"In the way they do it, I would vote against it, because these people are not able to use it properly.
"I do not think VAR is the problem but the way we use it is the problem. You cannot change the people, it's clear. You need them. So yeah, I would vote for scrapping VAR."
Meanwhile, it was also announced on Friday that midfielder Thiago Alcantara will leave Liverpool when his contract expires in June, after four injury-hit years at Anfield.
Thiago has been limited to just 68 Premier League appearances throughout his time with the Reds, including one match this campaign.
"Before he even came to Liverpool I believed that if you really love football it would make a lot of sense if you watched Thiago Alcantara play," Klopp said of the Spaniard.
"Technically, he is so, so good, a talent who could play in any team in the world, and it was a privilege to have him with us."
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