Alan Hutton feels sorry for Emerson Royal for the tough debut he had for Tottenham against Crystal Palace at the weekend, but he insists the Brazilian has to learn fast.
Tottenham signed him from Barcelona late in the last transfer window after they got rid of Serge Aurier.
He had spent the last two seasons on loan at Real Betis impressing for the La Liga side and Barca needed money.
They sold him to Tottenham and the Lilywhites are confident that the 22-year-old has the potential to become one of the best in the Premier League, but he hasn’t started too good.
He was thrown into the starting lineup against Palace and had to come up against Wilfried Zaha on a hot London afternoon.
The Ivorian winger is one of the hardest players to mark in the Premier League and gave Emerson a lot of trouble in the match.
Hutton admits that life can be tough when a player comes to the Premier League from other competitions.
However, he insists that Emerson must learn fast to survive in the competition.
“I thought it was a difficult afternoon for him,” he told Football Insider.
“That’s a difficult game to be thrown into – he’s just signed, he’s a foreign player – new country, new language.
“He was up against one of the best wingers in the league – and Zaha will take you on every minute of the game. Even if you’re getting the better of him, he will come back for more.
“He’s going to have to learn and learn quick. This is a higher level, it’s the best league in the world.
“He will come up against players like Zaha all the time.
“He’ll have to do both sides. He’ll have to get forward and attack as well as defending really well.”
Actually, he’ll probably be here for rather longer while our esteemed supremo tries to get 30 or 40 million for him!
He is rubbish ,I watched him a couple games for Betis, he never even stood out and was involved in a couple rash challenges. Passing is rubbish ,we went backwards signing a player because the payment for him must be split over 72 years. This guy hasn’t the experience nor the played in many big games as aurier. Let’s call a spade a spade. We could of done much better signing an unknown then this clown. He will be gone next season for 8 million
I agree with both previous comments.
Dont understand why we didnt sign Tomi but hopefully Emerson will improve under Nuno
Hopefully he’s better than that! Will judge him better after a run of games.
Levy has shot himself right in the foot with this one, as far as I can see Emerson is just a poor Aurier. We’ve actually made the position of right back worse and for more money than it would have taken to sign Tomiyasu too. Only Levy could do that. #LevyLewis&ENICOUT!!