Serge Aurier seems to believe he’s on the other side of an ordeal.
Having left PSG for Tottenham towards the end of the transfer window, the fullback is happy to have a fresh start and clearly hopes to be able to leave his past behind him.
L’Equipe quote the Tottenham player saying this weekend that he had special reasons to want to leave PSG: “My decision was taken in relation to a problem that we all know.”
The French newspaper believe that’s not a reference to Aurier’s ongoing appeal situation having been handed a prison sentence for violence against police, but instead related to his Periscope incident.
In February 2016 the footballer was caught having a go at teammates and his manager, and his days at PSG were numbered: “I was imprisoned and, from there, I couldn’t do anything. I could no longer speak to the press, I shut myself up on my own… It was a soap opera that wasn’t going to end. I was then in a year of redemption, because I knew I had disrespected the club.”
The final straw for Aurier, say L’Equipe, came when he had a disagreement with manager Unai Emery in March, during the match against Lorient.
Emery wanted Aurier to come on as a substitute, but he took 8 minutes preparing himself.
Aurier’s move to Tottenham has been the player’s release, and he can now concentrate on his football away from all the bridges in he left in ashes.
But what Aurier can’t escape is the actual event, the football world knows about his patchy past and so Tottenham is a chance for redemption, on and off the pitch.
That isn’t purely down to how people treat Aurier, with him clearly believing it became unfair at PSG, but also down to the player himself.