The Emerson Royal transfer saga was one of the more boring ones of the summer. He is now an AC Milan player, with Tottenham having pocketed about £15m from the sale.
The Brazilian is likely to be first-choice at full-back for Milan ahead of Davide Calabria, whose stock has fallen in the last couple of seasons.
There’s now an insistence from Italy that the Brazilian has taken two steps forward despite leaving a Premier League giant, largely because he has joined a massive footballing entity in the Rossoneri.
Sky Italia’s Premier League pundit Massimo Marianella shared those thoughts in an interview with MilanNews, and said:
“If Milan calls you, you are happy to take what many may consider a step backwards at a league level, but at club level between Tottenham and Milan you take two steps forward.”
Tottenham missed out on Champions League qualification last season to Aston Villa but Milan will be playing amongst the European elite next season.
Marianella also spoke about how Emerson turned out to be a ‘market opportunity’ that they took advantage of, even if it took half the summer to conclude.
He said: “Milan didn’t sign a sensational champion, but they reacted well to Florenzi’s injury by taking a market opportunity at a price that wasn’t crazy but still important. He may not have become the player they thought he could become but he’s still reliable and He can wear the Milan shirt well. He will be useful during the season and his experience in excellent teams like Barcelona and Tottenham is important.”
Whether Emerson is a ‘champion’ or not is rather questionable considering the amount of criticism he received at Tottenham and that he struggled impress on a consistent basis.
Having said that, Spurs have still managed to recoup a significant amount from his sale, keeping in mind that he had arrived from Barcelona for a fee of £25m.
