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Tottenham’s latest buy is already making outlandish claims

Tottenham’s latest buy is already making outlandish claims

Serge Aurier is already making a name for himself in the Premier League.

Signed for €25 million towards the end of the transfer window, the former Paris Saint-Germain full-back claimed that he was “the most influential defender in Ligue 1” in his time in France.

“I wanted a new life because PSG didn’t respect my true worth,” he said in a recent interview on the African Football Federation’s website (via 101greatgoals).

“They dwelt on other matters beside football. Statistically speaking, I am the most influential defender in Ligue 1 between 2013 and now. I have also won nine trophies with PSG. There are more striking things about my career than what happened off the field, but this is what they preferred to linger over.”

This may take some veteran Ligue 1 fans aback, seeing as his potential was never in doubt, but in the three years (2014-2017) he was at PSG, Aurier went from being a six-assist man at Toulouse to only making 12 in three seasons at the Parc des Princes.

​Aurier added that he “felt free now. PSG offered me a new three-year deal, but I have left them for a new adventure. I turned them down for a number of reasons. I want to discover a new way of life.

“I got on well with everyone at the club – bosses, players, coaches and fans – and the proof comes from the fact they wanted to keep me. But I had to think of myself. It is a personal decision.”

Even these comments may need to be taken with a pinch of salt, as Aurier got into trouble for (unwittingly) insulting then-Coach Laurent Blanc and half the team on Periscope, before also being arrested for assaulting a police officer, an incident he described as being “blown out of all proportion by the media”.