Kieran Trippier has revealed that he tried to speak to Daniel Levy before leaving Tottenham this summer, but “didn’t really get an answer”.
The 28-year-old England international left north London to join La Liga side Atletico Madrid in a £21.7 million deal, as per Sky Sports.
But the full-back has hinted at his initial desire to remain at Spurs, and has suggested that communication broke down between him and those in charge at the club.
As quoted in The Times, he said: “I tried to speak to the chairman. I just didn’t really get an answer. I didn’t get the impression that they wanted to keep me.
“I had four good years there, met some good people and thought I had a future there.”
Were Spurs right to let Trippier go?
There are really two parts to this.
In the first instance, was Trippier good enough to play for Spurs?
He may have suffered something of a post-World Cup hangover last year, but on his day, the 28-year-old was a fine player for the Champions League finalists.
His 2.5 tackles and 2.3 clearances per match were dependable enough, as per Whoscored, but there were times when he was genuinely found wanting in his positional sense, and as the season wore on, it felt as if he was becoming more and more of a disaster waiting to happen, and he did make two mistakes leading to goals in the league last term, as per the Premier League.
That was the joint 10th highest amount in the division, but there were other, more flattering parts of his game.
1.8 key passes and two successful crosses per match, as per Whoscored, is a pretty decent record for defender, and his pass completion rate of 78.9% was more than respectable.
And yet, still he was maligned by many.
It is perhaps telling that since moving to Atletico, he has registered fewer key passes, fewer crosses, fewer tackles, and fewer clearances per game, and yet his Whoscored rating outstrips his time at Spurs last season by 7.18 to 7.1.
In fact, the only real difference in his output is that Trippier has yet to be dribbled past in three La Liga appearances.
It raises questions as to how the common consensus on Trippier affected perceptions of him.
On the basis of all these stats, he could surely have done a decent job for Spurs this year.
And that brings us onto the second part of the issue.
Without Trippier, Mauricio Pochettino looks a little bit short on options at right-back.
Kyle Walker-Peters is the obvious successor but is currently injured, as reported by The Sun, while Juan Foyth is relatively inexperienced in the position and Serge Aurier is so unfancied by the manager that Davinson Sanchez was trusted ahead of him in the north London derby on Sunday.
Pochettino surely won’t be making that mistake again, with the Colombian looking all at sea for much of the game, and his hacked clearance allowing Arsenal an opener through Alexandre Lacazette.
He may not have been perfect, but how Pochettino must have wished he had Trippier to call on on Sunday.