ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS has moved to silence rumblings of discord between himself and Hugo Lloris but insisted that his expensive new goalkeeper’s wait for a Spurs debut will go on.

Lloris’s national team manager, Didier Deschamps, suggested last week that the France captain was already disgruntled at White Hart Lane, aghast at not being drafted straight into Tottenham’s starting line-up following his €18.5 million transfer from Lyon on deadline day. However, Villa-Boas maintains that the player “fully understands” his decision to persist with Brad Friedel, who will be preferred to Lloris again for tomorrow’s match at Reading.

“At the moment we feel that Brad is looking consistent and deserves to continue playing,” Villas-Boas said. “That is the common-sense approach and anything else would be extremely unfair. I have had a conversation with Hugo and he fully understands this.”

Villas-Boas rubbished claims that he had not been keen on signing Lloris and that the purchase had been imposed on him by the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy. “If the decision was not made by myself, I would not be sitting in front of you now,” said Villas-Boas, who repeated his assertion that Lloris will eventually become a key player – and that the goalkeeper has accepted the challenge of dislodging Friedel.

“We are extremely happy he is part of the squad. There is no doubt about his talent and his future in the club . . . All we think about is Tottenham’s principles and values and there is nothing in anyone’s contract that says they must play in the first team.

“But Hugo has no fear of competition. The first thing he said when I talked to him was: ‘I want to compete and prove I’m the best.’ When you hear that from a player you know that he is committed to producing his best. There are no issues whatsoever. He will 100 per cent be in contention for the next game after Reading.”