Arsenal are claimed to have been in advanced negotiations to sign Emerson Royal before he sealed a move to Tottenham Hotspur, before putting in a questionable performance on debut.
The Brazilian must have had a confusing summer on his part, initially joining up with Barcelona where he was expected to play for the current season, with Joan Laporte speaking out with praise on his official unveiling where he made a point to name his enormous release clause.
Laporte said(according to Blaugranagram): “I want to thank the family and representatives of Emerson. They have done a great job with the club so that he can be here. Emerson has to help us a lot to build this sports project that we are so eager to see succeed. Watching the presentation video, I remembered great Brazilian players who have played right-back like Belletti and Dani Alves. It is a very important position for us and we wish great success for Emerson. Emerson has a release clause of 300 million and we hope that he will be here for many years. He comes to a club that is more than a club, it is a declaration of our principles. We are a Catalan club open to the world. I am sure that Emerson will achieve a lot of success and have a good time.”
His club eventually came round to the idea of selling on their recently acquired defender, and the Gunners were close to completing a deal for his signature before pulling out of the deal as reported by TheAthletic, before we eventually sealed a move for Takehiro Tomiyasu on Deadline Day instead, who put in a starring performance on his debut.
Having seen both perform at the weekend, we got the better deal by far, and will be thoroughly relieved having see the Brazilian’s dire performance against Crystal Palace, where he endured a 3-0 defeat on his debut.
Is it too soon to be judging the two signings? When I consider how little time Tomiyasu has had to train with the squad, I get more and more excited about his future.
Patrick