Serge Aurier recounts PSG Periscope incident: “I didn’t even know what it was to start with.” | OneFootball

In an interview with Le Média Carré, former Paris Saint-Germain right-back Serge Aurier, now at Premier League outfit Nottingham Forest, notably discusses the incident that saw him sanctioned in 2016 for insulting his then-manager Laurent Blanc in a Periscope video.

The Ivory Coast international explains that he did not understand how the application – which was discontinued in 2021 – worked, which led to an understanding that his comments would be private. Instead, he was recording himself live, in a session which saw him insult some of his teammates and his manager:

“I didn’t even know what it was to start with. That’s the truth. Otherwise, if I’d known what the concept was, I would have never done it. That’s the trap. The youth of tomorrow need to be careful. Social media is not reality.”

Regarding the comments themselves, Aurier defends himself, arguing that his reaction was a common one: “It’s like when you’re at work and your boss is being a pain in the arse, you say things off the record. Laurent Blanc was my boss. I said it in the moment, out of frustration, it wasn’t anything against the person himself. Everyone thinks ill of their boss and we say it, except it’s not being filmed. But when we go to work, we’re like “Hello, how are you?” as if nothing happened!”

He nevertheless concludes that he has no issue with Laurent Blanc – but is not interested in finding out whether he has been forgiven or not – and that he considers the former France international’s long-time assistant Jean-Louis Gasset to be “like family“.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin