Tottenham transfer news: Kieran Trippier joins Spanish side Atletico Madrid from Spurs for £21m
Kieran Trippier has completed his move from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid, with the England right back passing his medical for his £21m move to Spain.
The 28-year-old was England's best player during their run to the World Cup semi-final last year, but that tournament may have taken a toll as he struggled for form and fitness for Spurs.
Trippier spent four years at Tottenham with his last appearance for the club coming in the Champions League final defeat to Liverpool.
"Atletico de Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur have reached an agreement over the transfer of Kieran Trippier. The 28-year-old has signed a contract for the next three seasons," a statement on the Atleti website read.
"With this signing, we add to our team a fantastic and experienced player who comes to us from the Champions League runners-up.
"The Englishman is a versatile full-back who can also play in midfield and has a fantastic right foot."
The former Burnley man has played over 100 times for Spurs and still had three years left on his current contract, although he had raise doubts about whether he wanted to see out his time at Tottenham.
Trippier then emerged as a surprise target for La Liga side Atletico, and he's now signed a four-year deal to become Diego Simeone's third defensive signing as he strengthens following the departure of stalwart Diego Godin.
It looks like being the first move of some big changes at full-back for Mauricio Pochettino, with Serge Aurier also available and Danny Rose being excused from their pre-season trip to Asia to discuss a possible move away.
The club confirmed on Wednesday morning that the 29-year-old was not part of the squad travelling for their pre-season tour and announced he was one of three players left behind to work on a potential exit.
"Vincent Janssen, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou and Danny Rose have been granted additional time off in order to explore prospective opportunities with other clubs."
For Atletico, they're busy spending the £107m brought in by selling star man Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona, and they're going big after spending £113m on Portuguese starlet Joao Felix.
Sporting Life verdict..
This one is a real head-scratcher for a number of reasons, firstly, where did it all come from!? Trippier started the Champions League final six weeks ago and starred for England in the World Cup a year ago, yet is being allowed to leave for what these days is buttons.
With Serge Aurier also available for transfer, Mauricio Pochettino must have someone in mind to sign at right back, as he's always got a plan and is hardly a manager to be caught out - so Spurs fans can expect a replacement to be coming in sooner rather than later.
That fee though, just £21m, is the thing that sticks out a mile in this deal. Yes, he's no spring chicken but Trippier is only 28, that's hardly old, and has performed on the biggest stages of all with just a slight tiredness-induced blip last season.
Looking around at other options, and the amount Man Utd had to splash out to get the talented but still unproven Aaron Wan-Bissaka, it shows you that in this window potential is being marked down as more valuable than experience and that means there could be more potential bargains out there.
Trippier going at that price is certainly the bargain of the window so far.
Good luck to Trippier though and it's good to see English players being willing to go and try out a new league and new way of life, which should hopefully improve him greatly - working with Simeone will be an experience in itself.