Spurs target Aarons to sign contract extension with Norwich

There’s transfer news, but not the good kind if you’re Tottenham Hotspur. The Telegraph is now reporting that Norwich City has reached an agreement with their young right back star and Tottenham Hotspur target Max Aarons for a new five year contract.

Aarons has reportedly been on Spurs’ short list of right back targets in this transfer window, and there was background murmurs that suggested, despite Norwich winning the Championship last season and promoting to the Premier League, that Aarons was very interested in a transfer to Tottenham this summer. It would be his second contract extension with Norwich in the past year.

This extension is a bit of a blow for Tottenham, if you believe that they were genuinely interested in him. Reports have suggested that Spurs could sell one or two of their first team right backs, with Kieran Trippier linked with Juventus and Napoli, and Serge Aurier somewhat out of favor. Kyle Walker-Peters is still here but it’s unclear whether Mauricio Pochettino thinks he’s ready to step up to a bigger role in the first team.

The list of right backs available this summer is a bit bleak, and Aarons was seen as a young potential star in the making, but it also makes sense that Norwich would want to lock down one of their best players (and likely most saleable asset) to a bigger deal in order to help keep them up this coming season.

Spurs haven’t been linked with a whole lot of other right backs in the window — there were (extremely) tenuous links earlier with 29 year old Japanese back Hiroki Sakai from Marseille, and there’s been talk that Stephen Sessegnon might come to Spurs along with his brother Ryan, but nothing firm. That doesn’t mean that, with the club focusing on Giovani Lo Celso and Dani Ceballos right now, nothing will be forthcoming, just that if Trippier and/or Aurier do get sold, there doesn’t appear to be much of a plan right now to replace them.