Spartak Moscow CEO Shamil Gazizov says that he agreed a fee for Tottenham right-back Serge Aurier in the summer.
The Ivorian seemed set to move to Russia for just €8.5m (£7.6m), which is £15.4m less than the £23 million Tottenham paid for him when he was signed from PSG.
The transfer didn’t come to fruition after Aurier decided to stay put after a tough summer for his family.
“We agreed with Aurier. We agreed with (chairman) Daniel Levy that the transfer can take place for a certain amount of money. It was about 8.5 million euros. There were normal negotiations with the player.” The CEO told Sport-Express (Via TribalFootball).
Gazizov would go on to explain why the transfer didn’t happen, citing Aurier’s personal issues.
However, it is still interesting to note that Tottenham were willing to take such a loss on one of their players.
Mourinho and Levy reportedly had a meeting about Aurier’s future in the summer, and it seems as though they were happy for him to leave.
Aurier still had two years to run on his contract at the time of the bid from the Russian outfit, so his value hadn’t reduced because of that.
It’s bad business from Daniel Levy to accept such a proposal for one of his players, especially when you consider that Aurier has still had a part to play this season, starting two games in the league so far this season.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the 60-cap Ivory Coast international going forward, Spurs are seemingly ok with the idea of him leaving the club, and with January just around the corner, another side could come in for him.
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