Sky Sports report that after months of chasing, North London side Tottenham Hotspur have finally managed to secure the services of Paris Saint-Germain full back Serge Aurier. One of the biggest hurdles in the deal was the player getting a work permit, which has reportedly been sorted out.
The transfer fee is expected to be around £23 million that the clubs had both agreed last week. The 24-year-old has purportedly completed his medical and agreed personal terms with the Lilywhites. Despite being the slowest club in the league in the transfer market, the two major signings (Davinson Sanchez and Serge Aurier) that Mauricio Pochettino has done are really statement making.
Following the sale of Kyle Walker to Manchester City, Tottenham had to endure the opening three games of the season with young Kyle Walker-Peters and an injured Kieran Trippier on the right defensive flank. They lost one against Chelsea at home and drew against Burnley away from home and the arrival of Aurier should solve their problems to a large extent.
The deal was a close shave for Spurs as PSG had reportedly set a midday deadline for their full back to sort out his work permit issues, failing which he could have been transferred to La Liga giants Barcelona or Serie A defending champions Juventus, where such complications weren’t necessary.
And the London club snapping him up from under the nose of such top sides really tell a lot about them. As per Sky Sports News, Premier League clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea were also interested in Aurier but manager Mauricio Pochettino and chairman Daniel Levy were major factors in this deal.
After a good few months where he had become the fan favourite at the club with his exciting runs and unparalleled stamina from the right flank, his position at PSG became shaky and under new manager Unai Emery, he was mostly seen playing mostly second fiddle to Thomas Meunier. Aurier couldn’t even manage to make 25 league appearances in any of the past two seasons for the Ligue1 giants and was expected to leave this summer in search of regular chances.
He had made his decision very clear to the manager as Unai Emery had revealed to the media his situation. The PSG boss Emery had said: “I spoke with Serge to tell him that I wanted him to stay. He told me that he wants to leave and he preferred staying in Paris (instead of going on tour to the USA) to prepare for his departure.”
This will be Aurier’s first professional stint outside France. Starting his career with Lens and then moving on to Toulouse, his big move had come in 2015 when he joined PSG.
