Official: Tottenham re-sign Michel Vorm until the end of the season

Tottenham Hotspur isn’t sure for how long they’ll be without Hugo Lloris, their club captain and starting goalkeeper. Lloris painfully dislocated his elbow in the third minute of Spurs’ last match, a 3-0 loss at Brighton & Hove Albion, and while there have been suggestions that he could be out “until the new year” nobody’s really sure how long it’ll be.

Paulo Gazzaniga is now Spurs’ primary keeper, with academy product Alfie Whiteman bumped up to back up keeper. Apparently Spurs don’t think that’s quite enough cover, so they’ve apparently reached out to an old friend. According to Dutch outlet NOS, Spurs have signed former keeper Michel Vorm on a short term contract that lasts until the end of the season.

Vorm was released on a free transfer this summer after five seasons serving as Hugo’s primary backup and has been a free agent ever since, not having found another club with which to sign. Coming back to Spurs makes sense for everyone — for Spurs they bring back a player who is familiar with the club, the manager, and the way the team plays. For Vorm, he gets back in the game and gets a paycheck again, with a team full of players who know and (presumably) like him.

It’s not clear where in the goalkeeper pecking order Vorm will fall — my guess is he’ll probably be the emergency third keeper, though it’s possible he’ll battle Whiteman to be Gazinga’s primary backup, if the coaching staff doesn’t think Alfie is ready for that level of competition. (On the other hand, if Whiteman isn’t ready for Premier League action they really should look for a better quality keeper this January or in the offseason)

Vorm’s form had trailed off by the end of last season to the extent that nobody was surprised or even that disappointed to see him go. While this is a good move for Spurs from an experience standpoint, hopefully we won’t be in a position where we’ll see Vorm back between the sticks for Tottenham this season.

Update: it’s official!