The former Liverpool goalkeeper has continued his climb up the divisions
A former Liverpool goalkeeper has secured a return to the top flight of English football after slipping down the divisions in an effort to restart his career.
Lawrence Vigouroux, who helped Leyton Orient win the League Two championship this season with a remarkable 24 clean sheets and only 33 goals allowed in 45 league games, has now joined Premier League newcomers Burnley.
In each of his three complete seasons with Orient, he was chosen as the team’s Player of the Year, a singular accomplishment that says eloquently about his consistently high performance standards.
The 29-year-old, who was previously on Liverpool’s roster from 2014 to 2016, joins the Reds from Tottenham Hotspur after a successful trial.
By the end of his first season on Merseyside, he had the chance to compete at the under-21 level before the next season’s EFL loan was planned.
Swindon Town, then in League One, selected him as their temporary player for the 2015–16 season after he shone in a series of trial games for the club. Ironically, it was the keeper’s performance against Liverpool in a preseason friendly loss that persuaded the Robins to take a risk on the Camden native.
Roberto Firmino made his Reds debut on that particular day, and his years with the team after this match have been full of memorable experiences.
Vigouroux, though, found himself in difficulty after paying a £50 fine with 5,000 1p pieces just one month into his loan stint at Swindon. The young goalkeeper was ordered back to Liverpool to explain his conduct after manager Mark Cooper took offense to his gesture.
Cooper commented on the event after Vigouroux had gone back to Wiltshire: “Lawrence is going to come back, he is really modest and very sorry.
He has been in the locker room after the game and apologized to the players because he understands his behavior was inappropriate. They unanimously responded “yes” when he asked if they wanted him back. It’s critical that Lawrence, a talented young goalie, takes this small error to heart.
After overcoming this specific situation, Vigouroux was eventually signed by Swindon for a three-year contract at a cost estimated to be over £400,000.
But controversy persisted during his stay at the team, raising significant concerns about the player’s attitude up to his final dismissal at the end of the 2018–19 season.
2018 saw Vigouroux and one other Swindon player left out of the matchday squad for a League Two match against Barnet on New Year’s Day after it was discovered they had gone out on the town following a victory two days earlier.
He also earned a four-match FA suspension earlier that season for remarks he made to match officials after the conclusion of the game.
After being released by Swindon at the conclusion of the 2018–19 campaign, he moved to Chilean club Everton de Via del Mar, however that move was unsuccessful as he failed to make a single appearance before leaving in December 2019.
The former Liverpool Academy prospect recently spoke with talkSPORT about this obscure transfer move, sharing the honest reality of it: “That was a significant difficulty that emotionally I had, because I was expecting I’d get a move someplace, and no one in the nation wanted me.
“You have to draw lessons from such [experiences], and I ultimately left Swindon believing I would move elsewhere in England. I had nothing, which was a major emotional issue for me because I was hoping to obtain .
In order to genuinely try to establish a profession, I was forced to fly 15 hours away to Chile.
When Vigouroux returned to England, Orient was the team to take a chance on him; they made the right choice. For the former Liverpool player, getting promoted to League One under Richie Wellens—the manager who let him go at Swindon—was the ideal ending.
After signing a three-year contract with the Clarets, his whirlwind career will now continue in the Premier League.
Liverpool now ‘expect’ to complete next midfield transfer with club ‘pushing hard’ for ‘full agreement’
Liverpool are closing in on their second signing of the summer transfer window
Liverpool are ‘closing in’ on their second signing of the summer transfer window as the club now ‘expect’ to complete a deal for Nice midfielder Khephren Thuram.
The Reds have been strongly linked with the player who has also broke into the senior set-up with France this year having represented his country at various age groups.
Football Insider report Thuram wants to join Liverpool and the club are growing increasingly confident of securing a deal for the player as they look to bolster their midfield.
Thuram had also been attracting interest from the likes of Newcastle United and Nice had been hopeful of a bidding war to drive up the price for the player.
The 22-year-old has made 138 appearances for Nice, scoring eight goals and providing 11 assists. Liverpool have already strengthened their midfield with the addition of World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister for a reported £35m.
The Reds have released Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin and James Milner following the end of their respective deals. Milner has made the switch to Brighton while Keita has moved back to Germany with Werder Bremen.
Speaking earlier this month while on international duty with France, Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate said he hoped Thuram would make the move to Liverpool.
“I would be very happy for him [Thuram] to come to Liverpool and I would take him under my wing and I would do everything for him to progress and become the player he wants to become,” Konate said while speaking to RMC Sport.
“Khephren is like my little brother, he’s someone I saw growing up. I was with his big brother [Marcus] in the training centre, but I saw him grow.
“I saw him perform and progress at a level… it was incredible. Even when he came to the France team for his first selection. I saw him at the training and I was really surprised by his size and his technical ease.”
