It has been a colourful start to Serge Aurier’s career at Tottenham Hotspur. None more so than last week against West Ham United when he was greeted by both yellow and red cards from referee Michael Oliver. He will miss the game against Huddersfield Town now and with an international break upcoming it will be a timely period of reflection for the Ivorian. He can take a breath and go again.
But then Aurier has never done things the easy way. His transfer to Tottenham came with some controversy at the outset. A pending case against him for allegedly assaulting a police officer outside of a Paris night club hung over his head. This was subsequently dropped. Couple that with some disparaging and homophobic slurs made about his former coach at Paris Saint Germain through his social media feed, and some bridges needed building at the start of his North London tenure.
As a footballer though there is no doubting his quality. At the age of just 24 he has won two French Ligue 1 titles; three Coupe de France titles and three Coupe de la Ligue titles. He has also won the African Cup of Nations in 2015 with the Ivory Coast national team. Spurs paid £23m for Aurier which is less than half of what they received for the departing Kyle Walker. Aurier is three years younger.
Aurier made his first appearance in a Spurs shirt in the Champions League at Wembley against Borussia Dortmund in an impressive 3-1 victory. A game in which his full debut was equally impressive and to the liking of the watching Spurs fans. This was followed by a somewhat difficult game against West Ham. Booked for an innocuous challenge initially (albeit not his first offence); he later was sent off after a second cautionable offence after a needless lunge on Andy Carroll. The sending off gave Tottenham a difficult last 20 minutes as they held on for a 3-2 victory.
Having been sent off, and knowing that he would miss the next premier league game, Mauricio Pochettino decided to start with Aurier again at right wing back against Cypriot team APOEL in Cyprus on Tuesday night. Pochettino kept his wing back system for that game and played three at the back. Tottenham and Aurier were struggling to take control of the game and APOEL were finding more space than they needed too behind Aurier. Despite being 1-0 up and in an attempt to shore things up by reverting to a flat back four, Pochettino sacrificed Aurier for the remainder of the game and substituted him for Fernando Llorente. Spurs went on to win 3-0.
It is fair to say that Aurier did not have much of a pre-season in Paris, being at the centre of transfer speculation. Arriving at Spurs late in the transfer window will not have done him many favours either as he tries to bed in to a new environment, a different league and a new playing system. The first three games will have been a mixed bag for Aurier, however once he settles in and finds his feet there is not much doubt that Tottenham Hotspur have added a very good player to their squad. Young, experienced and most importantly a proven winner is precisely what this young squad needed in the changing room. Given Pochettino’s track record in developing his full backs/wing banks into better players, the future looks bright for Serge Aurier at Tottenham.
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