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‘Should’ve never left’: Some Spurs fans react as club sends message to ‘unsung hero’
A number of Tottenham Hotspur fans have been reminiscing about Fernando Llorente after the Spurs Twitter account wished him a happy 36th birthday today.
Llorente spent two years at Tottenham, joining under Mauricio Pochettino’s watch from Swansea in the summer of 2017 before departing two years later on a free transfer and joining Napoli.
The Spaniard proved a superb deputy in Harry Kane’s absence in 2018-19, with eight goals and five assists in all competitions, despite just 11 starts.
Llorente also etched his name in Tottenham’s run to the Champions League final with the goal against Manchester City and the knockdown for Lucas Moura’s thrilling hat-trick goal against Ajax.
But more than that, the 6ft 4in ace was simply a superb back-up option, his height and aerial ability offering a concrete plan B and with no qualms about the role he was playing.
Llorente left Spurs after his contract expired at the end of the 2018-19 season, and given the club’s crisis up front early the following year, plenty of fans wished he never left.
A year on and Tottenham have a fearsome attack and Carlos Vinicius has proven an able deputy for Harry Kane, while Llorente is now plying his trade for Udinese.
Spurs were eager to remember their former player, sending out a classy birthday message along with a compilation of his goals for the N17 side:
🎈 Happy Birthday, ! ⚪️
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial)
And plenty of Spurs fans loved what they saw:
Best backup striker we’ve had at Spurs
— Andrew ʷ (@delstroyer_)
Genuinely the most important player in our 18/19 UCL run, gave me the best nights of my life and for that I’ll never forget him. Cult hero 🤍
— Jacob Joseph (@jacobfjoseph1)
miss him
— Anton🇩🇰 (@ThfcAnton)
Should’ve never left
— Harrison Greenfield 🏴 (@greenie9261)
A bit of an unsung hero, did a lot of great work as target man, rough housing defenders and holding the ball up, scored a few important goals too!
— H Chowdhury (@H_Chowdhury)
great player clear of auba
— 𝔹𝕖𝕟🥶💫 (@THFC_Scar)
Happy Birthday to the most important player in our most important games.
Will always remember you xx— Mark Cobb (@bagleeye66)
Sign him again
— ~ (@Kian_Thfc)