Tottenham have terminated Serge Aurier’s contract a year early after failing to find a buyer for the right-back before the deadline.
Spurs were desperate to offload Aurier after completing a £25.7million deal to sign Barcelona right-back Emerson Royal on a five-year contract.
They were willing to listen to offers for Aurier but could not to find a buyer and have now ripping up his contract by mutual consent.
Aurier, who joined Spurs from Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, has one year remaining on his Tottenham deal but has been told he has no future at the club.
The Ivorian played 110 times for the north London side, scoring eight goals.
Serge Aurier said: “I have really enjoyed my time at Spurs and would like to thank the club and the fans, but I feel now is the right time for me to move onto a new challenge.”
The Emerson deal was not dependent on offloading Aurier, however, with the new signing set to compete for a spot with Matt Doherty and Japhet Tanganga.
Emerson was Spurs’ fifth summer signing after Pierluigi Gollini, Cristian Romero (both on loan with an option to buy from Atalanta), Bryan Gil from Sevilla and Pape Matar Sarr, who will spend this season back on loan from Metz after signing from the Ligue 1 club.
The Blaugrana side felt his agents were demanding too much salary-wise, which left Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman rather stern in a press conference when asked about the young talent.
“My advice to a player of 18-years-old is that money isn’t the most important thing”, said Koeman. “The most important thing is playing games.”
After interest from several clubs including Tottenham, Chelsea and Real Madrid, Ilaix is set to continue his career with Leipzig after the Bundesliga side have since said goodbye to midfielder Marcel Sabitzter as he makes his move to Bayern Munich.
