Usually when we talk about a club making the best move of the summer transfer window, we are discussing a bargain signing of a blockbuster move that ended up winning a team the league. But in the case of Tottenham, they may have pulled off a brilliant deal by selling someone nobody should have wanted to buy.
For weeks, AC Milan were pushing to sign Emerson Royal from Tottenham, and only God knows why Paulo Fonseca was so hell-bent on signing Emerson instead of Lille right back Tiago Santos, with whom he directly worked with and should have seen was one of the best young right backs in Europe.
Instead of signing Santos, Milan signed Emerson from Tottenham for about the same price, 15 million euros, even though Emerson is both older and demonstrably worse.
How much worse? If Santos is one of the best young starting right backs in Europe, Emerson just might be the worst starting right back in European football right now.
And if you think that’s a harsh assertion, ask yourself why Tottenham completely buried him in their squad. No Spurs fan wanted this guy around. Emerson has years of experience in the Premier League and LaLiga, and maybe at one point in time he was actually a decent player for Real Betis.
But that was then and this now. Tottenham sold a player they didn’t want and nobody else wanted for 15 million euros to a club that needed a better right back than Davide Calabria, could have signed an ideal replacement in a player who worked with their coach previously, and instead paid to sign a right back who is even worse than Calabria.
Tottenham fans were thus unsurprised to see just how poorly Emerson played in Milan’s 2-2 draw with Lazio. He didn’t even look like belonged on a Serie B pitch, much less in the starting lineup of the club with the second most Champions League titles, playing against another historic Italian side.
The fact that Tottenham were able to sell a player who was this bad for them ever since he joined is a testament to the kind of darkforce voodoo power that Daniel Levy has, which has probably kept him employed at the club for so long despite being an entirely unlikable figure himself.
What Milan were thinking when they signed Emerson, nobody will know, but, technically, it wasn’t even their worst decision of the summer market – hiring Fonseca in the first place was.
As for Tottenham, they made some notable moves this summer, too, including the completely illogical decision to spend 60 million on Dominic Solanke, but, even if this is very much tongue in cheek, they made the best move of the window by somehow fooling Milan into spending 15 million on an outright downgrade on Calabria. Calabria!
