Tottenham defender Serge Aurier has said that he does not need the press to tell him when he is playing badly as he always watches all of his games back when he heads home.
Aurier made the headlines for all the wrong reason when he playing for PSG as he was involved in a couple of unsavoury incidents including one in which he tore into Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Laurent Blanc, Angel Di Maria and Edinson Cavani in a live broadcast on Periscope. (The Guardian).
He was also reported to have been involved in a brawl with police officers outside a night club in Paris (AS), although the Spurs defender has denied ever assaulting the police.
The 27-year-old revealed that the coverage he received by the French press convinced him that they were out to get him and he subsequently decided to no longer talk to the media.
Speaking to France Football, Aurier said: “Why don’t I want to talk to the press anymore? Because they sold things to people that are not true. Since that time [of the policeman fracas], I have had a daughter, who will soon be two years old.
“Before I had this hatred [of the press], if you say true things about me, no problem, I assume. But I saw crazy things, completely off the plate. That’s what put me in this impossible state. But I never fell for it.
“It’s easy to say, about a player at PSG: ‘Ah, he didn’t respect the institution, PSG must take sanctions.’ But, that is not for you to say! That’s why I say that in France, it is easy to criticise.
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“Here [in England], they know there is a problem with a player and they say, ‘We will see what the club does.’ It is different from: ‘He must be punished.’
“They [journalists] can write whatever they want, but they have to keep in mind that the person they are writing about is a human being. He has a family. When you speak badly of a person, are you being objective?”
The Ivory Coast international also admitted that he likes to watch every single one of his games back so that he can learn from his mistakes and improve.
The right-back added: “I don’t watch what journalists say about me or not. My strength is, I go home, I put my match and I say to myself ‘There, you did poorly’, ‘There, you could have done better.’ I correct myself after each match.
“I don’t have to wait for a newspaper report to find out if I’m playing well or not. Even though I was catastrophic, I watch the game. And it hurts me! But it allows me to progress.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Aurier certainly deserves credit for how much he’s improved this season but he still hasn’t managed to cut out that element of rashness that’s in his game. My heart is in my mouth every time he lunges in to win the ball off an attacker. If he can eliminate those errors and get more consistency into his crossing, then he certainly has the attributes required to be a top right back.
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