According to Simon Jones of the Daily Mail, AC Milan are in transfer talks with Tottenham over Serge Aurier, but the two sides are yet to agree a fee. We want to recoup £23m for the 27-year-old but Milan aren’t willing to pay more than £12m.
What went wrong for Aurier?
It hasn’t been all bad. Aurier has made 83 appearances in all competitions since joining from Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, scoring six goals with 14 assists. The Ivorian international has been a regular this season too with 42 appearances in 2019/20, but he’s struggled for consistency at times.
Jose Mourinho has regularly used Aurier, but that may be down to his lack of faith in Kyle Walker-Peters in addition to Japhet Tanganga’s inexperience in the role. Walker-Peters was loaned out to Southampton in January and could be joining the Saints permanently this summer, so we could be lacking depth next season.
Di Marzio say Aurier wants out of Tottenham and is open to a move to Milan. And seeing as we’re happy to let him go for the right price, a transfer could be on the cards this summer. Aurier has had good moments since football returned in June, but he can be improved upon.
Who will replace him?
Thomas Meunier was previously on our radar, but he’s gone on to join Borussia Dortmund after leaving Paris Saint-Germain. Nelson Semedo was another player on Spurs’ shortlist, but he could be signing a new deal with Barcelona.
We’ve been linked with Max Aarons for some time and may have luck signing him for an affordable price after Norwich City suffered relegation. The only stumbling block in agreeing a deal may be the growing interest from other clubs.
Cedric Soares would have been a left-field option upon his departure from Southampton, but he’s since joined Arsenal. After that, there’s OGC Nice defender Youcef Atal and Inter Milan’s Achraf Hakimi who we’ve been linked with, but it remains to be seen who we’ll eventually plump for.
Summary
Aurier has impressed in the last couple of months, but it’s hard to ignore that he’s been inconsistent prior to that. It’s unknown whether Milan will stump up £23m for the 27-year-old and unknown whether we can sign a better right-back with that money, however. Selling Aurier leaves us incredibly short, so it might be better to line up one or two options before cashing in.
In other news, Jose Mourinho is considering a surprise transfer to bolster the attack