Recruiting somewhat heavily during the summer transfer market, Tottenham managed to bring in both experienced players and promising prospects.
Pierluigi Gollini and his 26 years proved to be the eldest of the bunch, with the youngest being Pape Matar Sarr, on whom Fabio Paratici spent £15m or so and some bonuses to acquire from FC Metz.
In the process, the now 19-year-old was loaned back to the Ligue 1 side for the season, where he would be guaranteed first-team football, having previously excelled in his first campaign.
However, that wasn’t the only reason why Bernard Serin, Metz’s president, pushed to have the youngster back at the club, as he explained in a long interview with Graoully Mag on Moselle TV on Monday.
He said: “The cherry on top is that we can keep him for an extra year with us. I was very attached to that idea because, in the end, with the matches being played in empty stadiums last year, the fans hadn’t seen him.
“Therefore, the fact of transferring him without the fans being given a chance to see him, that hurt me, and so I insisted to have him for a year and I’m very satisfied that we have him for 2021-22 season”.
Starting all nine games for Metz in the league so far, Sarr might not have reached the heights of last season, with his team struggling a bit more as a whole, but the campaign is long and there is time to turn things around.
Serin was also asked if he was pleased with the deal as a whole, and his answer leant towards a positive feeling about it.
He added: “Obviously, we always wish to get more, but he’s still a kid who has played very few games in Ligue 1, who turned 18 on September 14th 2020, and we’re talking about a transfer when he’s not even 19.
“So, in the end, when I look at the transfer fee plus the bonuses that we can get when he plays for Spurs, I think we can be satisfied”.
Arriving from Génération Foot in 2020, Sarr has played 34 games in all competitions for the Ligue 1 club, scoring four goals and picking up one assist, and has already managed to accumulate two caps for his country despite his young age.
