The passing of the goalkeeper's torch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will seemingly take place for the 2023-24 campaign, as the Lilywhites close in on a deal to sign Empoli number one Guglielmo Vicario.
The Lilywhites are understood to have succeeded with a verbal offer of around £17.2m for the 26-year-old, and a move could be formalised within the coming days ahead of an official announcement.
Vicario emerged as Tottenham's number one target after Spurs withdrew their interest in Brentford's David Raya due to his £40m price tag, and the Italian certainly has big gloves to fill in North London.
Hugo Lloris has held the fort for the past 11 years, but the Frenchman was prone to errors last season - four in the Premier League alone - but there is optimism that Vicario will fare better in the English capital than compatriot Pierluigi Gollini did in the 2021-22 season.
Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at Vicario's background, strengths and weaknesses ahead of his expected arrival at Tottenham, and what Lilywhites fans can expect to see from their new guardian.
BACKGROUND
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Born in Udine in 1996, Vicario began his footballing journey close to home by joining the Udinese youth ranks and experienced his first taste of senior action with Fontanafredda in the 2014-15 season, making 30 appearances in the fourth tier of Italian football.
A highly successful temporary spell at Venezia followed in 2015-16, where a teenage Vicario kept 17 clean sheets in 36 Serie D matches, helping the club achieve promotion to the third division and subsequently penning a permanent deal for a paltry €500 (£429.90) the following year.
Vicario subsequently spent two years as a backup goalkeeper before taking on the number one jersey for the 2018-19 season, making 32 Serie B appearances, but Venezia - who lost the relegation playout to Salernitana - only survived due to Palermo losing their professional licence.
Nevertheless, Cagliari were convinced to take a €2m (£1.7m) punt on Vicario in 2019, loaning him straight back out to Serie B with Perugia, but this time his side were demoted to the third tier via the playouts, despite his nine clean sheets.
Vicario subsequently returned to Cagliari and belatedly made his Serie A debut in a 1-0 defeat to Inter Milan in April 2021, before acting as the last line of defence in successive wins over Parma, Roma and boyhood club Udinese.
The Italian also played every minute of Cagliari's run to the 2020-21 Coppa Italia last 16 - even claiming an assist in a 3-1 loss to Atalanta BC - but he was demoted back down to the bench by Alessio Cragno for the final few weeks of the season, totalling just seven appearances throughout the campaign.
RECENT FORM
Vicario's fourth career loan saw him shipped out to Empoli for the 2021-22 season, and it was at the Stadio Carlo Castellani where he established himself as a top-level shot-stopper, playing every single minute of the campaign and keeping seven clean sheets to ensure survival for his side.
Empoli subsequently activated their option to buy Vicario for just €8.5m (£7.3m) last summer, and despite missing all of March and most of April with a chest injury, the 26-year-old's efforts were priceless in securing another season of top-flight football for Empoli.
Vicario recorded another seven clean sheets in 2022-23 - this time in 31 matches - and he made an astonishing triple save in a 2-0 loss to Roma in February, keeping out a Paulo Dybala half-volley, a Gianluca Mancini rebound and somehow also denying a point-blank Tammy Abraham strike with his outstretched foot.
However, such a remarkable streak of saves was arguably sparked by Vicario's tendency to parry shots rather than catch them, often leading to attackers trying to poke home on the rebound as the Empoli man deflects the ball back into the danger area.
While Vicario's handling from shots could evidently do with some work, the 6ft 4in Italian is a commanding, brave and decisive presence in his area, showcasing strong reflexes and expertly closing down angles for attackers, while he is also reported to have made great strides with his footwork.
None of Vicario's statistics truly leap out at a first glance, but he ranks in the 86th percentile for crosses stopped against his fellow goalkeepers in the big five European leagues over the past year, and football.london reports that the 26-year-old was viewed as the second-best Serie A goalkeeper last year, only behind Inter Milan's Andre Onana.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
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While goalkeepers are the tortoises of the football world and will often go on until their mid-40s - see Italy icon Gianluigi Buffon - Vicario was arguably a late bloomer at the top level.
Having competed in the doldrums of the third and fourth tiers of Italian football during the earliest days of his career, Vicario did not ever represent an Azzurri youth team, but he has since earned some level of trust from Roberto Mancini.
The former Udinese man was called up for the first time at the age of 25, making the bench for September's Nations League win over England and repeating his substitute role in November friendlies with Albania and Austria.
After being forced to miss March's Euro 2024 qualifiers with his chest injury, Vicario was recalled for this month's Nations League finals, taking his unused substitute tally to five games for Italy as they won the bronze medal.
Given that undisputed number one Gianluigi Donnarumma is two-and-a-half years younger than him and showing no signs of slowing down, Vicario may still be waiting a while to win his first cap for the Azzurri, but making an immediate impression at Tottenham would go a long way to the 26-year-old earning his international stars.
Ben Knapton
