Serge Aurier has revealed that he would preferred to have stayed at Paris Saint-Germain during the summer rather than join Tottenham.
Aurier signed for Spurs for £24million in August after the French league leaders signed Brazilian great Dani Alves on a free transfer to provide competition for Thomas Meunier at right-back.
Regarded as one of the more controversial characters in the game, the 24-year-old has been in the limelight in recent years for his various off-field indiscretions.
He has now dropped the bombshell that his choice would have been to stay at the Parc des Princes rather than make the move to north London.
“I’m conscious [of what I did]. I’m intelligent, even if sometimes it doesn’t seem that way. I’ve always made important and interesting choices in my career,” he told French outlet RMC Sport.
“After a while, you become aware that things are difficult for the kids who watch us and are our fans.
“Of course I would have liked to stay at PSG. It’s the club of my heart. I come from Sevran. I’m from Paris. There’s nothing better than playing for the club you love.”
OPINION
Spurs fans are split on whether the Ivory Coast international is the real deal, with many claiming he is inferior to his right-back rival Kieran Trippier, both in terms of defending and attacking overlaps. Aurier does not have the assists stats to die for of the Englishman, but he has proved a powerful and pacy option on the right side of defence and is particularly well suited to the wing-back role. The White Hart Lane faithful are unlikely to be somewhere other than at the upwardly mobile club who have suffered a few hitches of late but topped their group to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages and are challenging strongly for a top-four Premier League finish. This increases the sense that the defender is merely passing through at Tottenham and is not at the club for the long haul.