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Official: Tottenham release Benoit Assou-Ekotto

 

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Tom Farmery
2 February 2015

Tottenham have cancelled the contract of out of favour left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Spurs confirmed via their official Twitter account that they had terminated the Cameroon international's £40,000-a-week deal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">We can confirm that Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been released from his contract with the Club. We wish him well. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&amp;id=222025&amp;p=http://t.co/iWE2cDBu05" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-105171-http://t.co/iWE2cDBu05" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/iWE2cDBu05</a>— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial/status/562362331523330048" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-105171-https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial/status/562362331523330048" data-vars-event-id="c23">February 2, 2015</a>

Assou-Ekotto had failed to start a game for Spurs since May 2013, and has recently been training with the first team.

He was given the opportunity to prove himself in the Championship last season when loaned to QPR, and played 30 times for the west London club. But Harry Redknapp chose not to sign him permanently in the summer.

The defender was signed by Spurs from Lens in 2006 for £3.5 million by then manager Martin Jol.

Jol and the club's sporting director Damien Comolli said at the time that Assou-Ekotto was one of the most promising youngsters to come out of France.

It is understood that current Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino and chairman Daniel Levy have wanted to move the defender on since the start of the season in an attempt to free up the wage budget.

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Mauricio Pochettino
Tottenham Hotspur