Italian sources claim AC Milan has opened talks with Tottenham over Serge Aurier

It’s safe to say that few people have been overtly satisfied with the state of Tottenham Hotspur’s right back situation going back to the point when Kyle Walker was sold to Manchester City. Serge Aurier, the starting (and really, only) right back for Spurs this season, has been half-heartedly linked away from the club in recent weeks in a “Spurs will listen to offers” sort of way as Jose Mourinho attempts to retool his team into something closer to what he actually wants.

Now we have our first real transfer rumor linking Serge away from Tottenham. Two prominent Italian football journalists — Fabrizio Romano and Gianluca Di Marzio — are both reporting that AC Milan is interested in Aurier, with Romano even stating that he is their “main target.”

Di Marzio goes even further, claiming that representatives from Milan have already opened negotiations with Spurs for the transfer of Aurier to Italy. Di Marzio goes on to say that Milan value Aurier at between €12-15m, aaaaaaaand that’s where things get a little silly, because you’d have to think that Daniel Levy will want significantly more than THAT for his starting right back and one of the first names on Spurs’ team sheet.

It’s important to remember, though, that these rumors are 100% sourced from Milan, not from Tottenham. If it’s the opening salvo in negotiations, Milan is putting down a marker and saying “this is what we think he’s worth,” and that valuation is going to be a low-ball amount. The reality is that if Serge were to leave Spurs, it would almost certainly be for significantly higher than that — heck, €12m is less than what has been discussed as the valuation of Kyle Walker-Peters, and he can’t even get a match at Spurs. I’d think that Spurs wouldn’t even pick up the phone for less than €20m, but that’s a total guess on my part.

I honestly have no qualms about selling Aurier — Spurs have needed a refresh at the fullback positions for a while now. I also have no idea what that would mean for an incoming replacement, though Max Aarons is right there. It does seem strange, however, that Paolo Maldini, technical director at Milan, has seemingly lots of choices at right back and would want to target Serge Aurier. Maybe he thinks Serge would do better in Serie A than he would in the Premier League, I don’t know.

Regardless, this does look like concrete interest, at least on the Italian side of things. We’ll wait and see where things go from here.