Tottenham cannot afford to sell right back Serge Aurier

Serge Aurier has recently made his intention to leave clear, but Tottenham can ill-afford to lose their only senior experienced right back. 

It’s better, under ordinary circumstances, to cut your losses and dispense with any player who wants out. But these are by no means ordinary circumstances. Right back, after selling Kieran Tripper, is inarguably Tottenham’s thinnest position.

Not yet quite back to full health, Aurier is working hard to recover from an injury suffered at the African Cup of Nations earlier in the summer. Few believe the Ivorian, with his oft erratic decision making and propensity to make costly mistakes, can earn Spurs’ preferred right back role.

But even though Kyle Walker-Peters is now presumably Mauricio Pochettino’s first choice right back, Aurier still has a key role to play at the club this season. Juan Foyth is out with an ankle injury until September, leaving Walker-Peters and Aurier as the club’s only two available senior right backs. When Foyth returns, Spurs cannot conceive of going through a rigorous Premier League, or expect to excel on various fronts, with only two senior right backs, both of whom are conspicuously inexperienced.

In an exception to the rule, Tottenham must keep a player against his will, which begs the question, how effective can a player who desires to leave truly be? Staying at Spurs against his will might irk Aurier, but it appears, until the winter transfer window opens, there is no alternative.

PSG and AC Milan are in pursuit of Aurier, who is thought to favour a move back to the French side from whence he came. Hopefully Aurier can put his immediate desire to leave Tottenham aside and help his current club navigate the next few months of a demanding Premier League schedule.

Once the next transfer window opens, and when Daniel Levy secures a seasoned replacement for the Ivorian, Aurier can be on his merry way. But until then, Aurier must buckle down, place temporarily his team’s welfare above his personal aspirations and portray the experience Tottenham paid £23 million for in the first place.