Emerson Royal was linked with a move away from Tottenham before the summer transfer window closed.
However, the 23-year-old ended up staying at the club and he has done well in the Premier League so far.
Speaking to Football Insider, former Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson has claimed that Emerson’s performances have surprised him but he does not expect the right-back to continue playing at a high level.
He said: “I’ve been surprised by him this season.
“Going forward I have always liked him, he offers something different. He worries me defensively though. I feel he has a mistake or a mistimed challenge in him.
“This season he has done extremely well. Perhaps that has forced the manager’s hand. There has been no reason not to keep him in there so far.
“That I guess is giving Djed Spence a bit longer to settle in. I never thought Spence was going to leave on loan. The manager clearly wasn’t happy with his options at the end of last season hence the signing of Spence and the links to a lot of other wing-backs.
“I think Spence will be integrated soon. I’m not sure Emerson Royal will maintain the form he has shown. I would be pleasantly surprised if he does.”
Spurs signed Djed Spence from Middlesbrough this summer and it will be interesting to see if the youngster can force his way into Antonio Conte’s starting lineup in the coming weeks.
Robinson claims that Emerson’s impressive form has given Spence more time to settle in and he can get used to the system at Spurs before being thrown into the mix.
Emerson had a mixed campaign with Spurs last year and his defensive frailties were exposed a number of times. Robinson believes that the Brazilian is effective going forward but he can be shaky at the back.
It remains to be seen whether Emerson can prove the former Spurs keeper wrong and hold down a regular starting berth this season.
Emerson has improved considerably from last season to be honest. He is being far less exposed defensively, especially when paired with Cuti Romero and his offensive skills are also improving, plus he has a fantastic ‘engine’. Time and again when we are flooding forward, on a quick break, Emerson is in the mix, giving the attacker another outlet option. This might not always be noticed, but is a real bonus. I have changed my mind from selling Emerson to keeping him as a squad player. He is still not a genuine top 4 starting calibre RWB, but he IS improving and is a great team guy, which does count for something
Top 3 is going some. Most keepers are good shot stoppers, Lloris is one. He’s not so hot on crosses or when the ball is at his feet. He has been at the level below Kane and Son, but way above some of he clowns who pull on the shirt.
🍻
Lloris has been in the top 3 for the past 5 seasons, only bettered by Allison and Ederson…. He’s still world class mate.. Much more consistent and better than the likes of Pickford and Pope..
Sorry, you’re just giving ENIC a free pass.
The right owners could turn Spurs around in just a few weeks.
Or could we not have afforded Haarland? Or anyone else that a SUCCESSFUL club might have fancied?
I don’t know the details, nor do I want to.. Forgot about why he’s gone so yeah good riddance..
It’s not all about the money.. Players want to win trophies..
I never insinuated mediocrity. We are not in the position to attract top world class players, these want to play for the top clubs.
We need to start winning under Conte before we compete in the market with the very top clubs.
Conte said ‘the club did all it could do’.. Suggests to me that the club tried in vain to sign certain players.. Either players didn’t want to come, or clubs didn’t want to sell.
You’re completely missing the point. Liverpool were in decline for some years before the new owners, FSG, realised that they had to radically change their MO. At least FSG had a proven successful track record in owning sports clubs. I am not comparing their trophy room to ours, as you are right that would be downright embarrassing, but when you have property speculators who know next to nothing about football running a PL club, that’s why you have a trophy cabinet which is empty. Twenty three years of complete mismanagement by Enic and Levy is the reason we never win anything and it is still going on.
Rather than finance I was talking about the size of the clubs.. The Sheikhs and the Russian are/were way more rich than anyone else..
But right now and across my time and before, these are bigger clubs.. They win more, so to all the top players whether home or abroad, are more likely to sign for them.
The top players want to go to the top winning clubs. We are a level or ten below these clubs and have been for time.
Liverpool have won more trophies than Man United.. Of course their illustrious history makes them a bigger club..
Comparing our trophy cabinet to theirs is just embarrassing..
Nice bloke he is but unless I have lost the plot what does Ben Davies actually contribute??
There is a tonne of money!
He lacked pace which wasn’t good, but the fact he also liked young girls is more of a concern!
Not putting in a cross is probably every fan’s biggest frustration. Anyone who has played the game know what is difficult in terms of technique, but a cross is just a ball in to a specific area. As I wrote that March for Brighton has just put a good one in! It isn’t that hard.
Totally agree
I do like Lloris, but in modern day goalkeeping he is not good enough with his feet, which is an issue. I would also like him to know where his near post is. I don’t know how many times he is beaten at his near post, like v West Ham, but it has happened quite a few times. Is he in the top 5 keepers in England? I could argue Ederson, Allison, Mendy, Pickford, Ramsdale and Pope are better. The keepers at Brighton, Leeds, Wolves are pretty decent, definitely in the same bracket as Lloris.
You would probably have to include Lloris in that list but what is beyond dispute is the trouble we have of selling players at the prices Levy demands. This has been amplified by our inability to sell the deadwood. Rodon, Lo Celso, Winks and N’Domble are all loans and will all probably be coming back to haunt us at some stage. Our transfer window was exposed at the end as a sham.
Agreed… what’s really frustrating is he gets into really good positions then makes the wrong choice or suffers from poor execution…almost like he models his game on Sterling 😏. You would have thought regards Royal & Sessy they should by now be able to deliver a half decent cross regularly… I mean how hard can it be….
Correct about the recruitment and being shrewd. Man Utd, Arsenal and Everton have proven that throwing money at players not fit to wear their shirts is down to poor decisions at Board level.
If we can’t buy the right players then I don’t think we should just buy anyone, but invariably this will be down to wages and fees offered. At least every Man Utd and Arsenal manager has been backed massively. No Spurs manager has ‘ever’ been backed since probably Bill Nicholson.
Liverpool fans do feel, like Klopp stated, that their Board could be doing far more to keep up with City, but they are looking up, whilst we are being outspent by West Ham, Arsenal (again) and Forest when we have significant areas to improve.
Since Poch had a good starting XI, where we had 8 players worthy (Walker, Rose, Toby, Verts, Dembele, Eriksen, Son, and Kane-I don’t include Dele because despite his ‘numbers’ I always thought he was a fraud) of winning the EPL.
Nowadays, we definitely have Kane and Son with a possibility at Richarlison, Kulu and Romero being squad players.
The issue with some of our squad, as we know by no EPL team coming in for them, no one wants them. Not even Villa, Bournemouth, Forest.
None of the options we have are remotely good enough for a club challenging for trophies. The RB/RWB options encapsulate the ENIC priorities.
many a true word is spoken in jest, HH!! It’s tiring hearing that we should expect mediocrity at best when the numbers point to us being more than capable of outbidding the likes of Liverpool.
Royal has improved but along with Sess, clearly isn’t good enough for a top team. Those two offer absolutely nothing and wouldn’t get near the squad of teams we should be looking to beat.
We are not City, Chavski, or Liverpool
Er… we have colossal financial clout. We just prefer not to waste it on players 🤣
We are not City or Chelsea, in that you are correct but to say that Liverpool are a bigger club is disputable. Several years ago they were in a similar position to us if not worse but they have since turned it round by backing the manager, completely changing their backroom staff and, most importantly, getting their recruitment right. In fact, they have done the reverse to us by getting things right on the pitch first and winning trophies and now they are expanding their attendance capacity.
If you are a shrewd operator in the transfer market, you can compete with the likes of Chelsea and City, who incidentally, are much shrewder in their recruitment than Chelsea. Utd are a prime example of a club who have colossally overspent in the market with poor results. As a a club, we have missed out on numerous top class players because Levy finagled, delayed, haggled and hesitated when by being slightly more decisive and bold, we would have attained our targets.
Selling Siggurs was dumb.. He was superb..
We are not City, Chavski, or Liverpool so it’s futile expecting the same..
Our sustainable model is the same as Liverpools, so they are best to compare with, but they blow us out the water in the transfer market because they’re a bigger club. It’s obvious why the likes of Willian and Diaz snubbed us for the Chavs and Bindippers.
Robbo will never be Englands number one pundit..
Jelly to keep proving the doubters wrong.. Spence is one for the future, Conte has repeatedly told us.. He wasn’t a Conte player/target.. He ok’d the deal and said Spence is a good prospect.. He’d have to really impress to force his way past Jelly, Doherty and possibly Moura because he may play wing back now too.
My standards for us signing any player is whether they would get into any of the City, Chelsea or Liverpool teams and as one would expect, few if any would. This is simply because we have never competed for the top players and Levy has never wanted to be in a bidding war. Davies has been pretty average over the years and would never have played for a top side. I always thought that his recruitment along with Vorm in p/ex for Siggurdson was a curious deal and must confess that I had a chuckle when Swansea later sold him to Everton for circa £40 million.
If Robinson thinks Royal is good in attack and offers something different, as opposed to assists, chances created and goals, what the ‘eck’ is it?
Which for Royal, as a WB, where we need creativity is a major issue isn’t it? If he can’t attack he is of no use in our system. When he is left isolated in a back 4 he has been caught out too many times by good wingers. Which supporters in the Prem would want him in their team? Even Forest didn’t want him.
As for our two theatrical Brazilians, one is also a good footballer and one is not to the required standard! When we look at our players we should want good footballers first and foremost. I cannot think of any defenders/midfielders who aren’t combative to be fair. Royal’s combativeness masks alot of his inefficiencies. VVD has no need to go flying in because he has speed and defensive nouse.
I don’t agree with your assessment that our LB players have had their cracks painted over. For a number of years whoever has played there, be it Davies, Reguilon or Sessegnon; they have all been heavily criticised along with our right sided defenders for their inefficiencies (and our CB pairing of Sanchez and Dier, as well as the likes of Winks, Moura and the recently departed Bergwijn). Of Sessegnon and Reguilon, the latter started well but has regressed for whatever reason, the former looks like he doesn’t believe he is good enough and he plays like that too.
Davies has lived a charmed life, he is a squad player at best for any decent team but has started countless games for us because our recruitment has been awful meaning he hasn’t been usurped. I would include Davies in the awful recruitment, no team wanting to win regularly would have Davies as a starter. He’s the sort of player that would be at Burnley and no one was enamoured when we signed him. Digne at Villa is far better and he plays for Villa!
My standard on a player is ‘If he wasn’t at Spurs would we want him?’ and Davies is a no.
I actually think defensively Royal is ok.. it’s his ball distribution, decision making & crossing that let’s him down… sessignon just looks like he has no confidence on the ball… I think Spence should be loaned out in January
Doherty was playing well enough before injury last season there’s a choice he becomes first choice too
Spence is more jam-tomorrow, he’s going to get some cup football and take it from there this season. What many people fail to understand is the level you need to be at to play well in the Premiership and the Champions League week in, week out. Generally it can take a player of Spence’s age and stage of development three seasons or more to get there. Sessingnon is struggling to do it and he’s been with us a considerable time now.
Robinson just isn’t being realistic if he thinks Spence will be ready for this level as first choice this season. Regardless of how Royal performs, I’m quite surprised that an ex-pro would take this view. Another ENIC payroller?
Emerson is one of our most combative players. OK like another Brazilian he enjoys the theatrics of rolling around, grimacing at the slightest touch of breath of an opponent who’s 6 feet away, but the combatative nature of him (and Richarlison) is part of the team effort to get under the skin of the opposition, unsettle them, make them aware that there’s pain to be had from challenges with them….frankly a bit more of that elsewhere in the side would be welcome.
Thought you got Sessingnon spot on Harry; I’m also not seeing the new Bale or even the old one for that matter. The guy always seems to be looking around for permission to do anything, his decision making is slow, finishing ordinary and he should probably be taken to the super-dooper training ground and made to play only with his right foot for a while (he can take Hugo for company).
Given his age and position he is at present (imo) too slow; yes he’s coming back from injury, but that has been the case since we signed him.
I wonder why it is that anyone playing right back gets all manner crap thrown at them and anyone at left back has all their cracks painted over? Error prone, not great distribution or attacking menace, defensively frail, loses the ball etc… No, I’m not talking Royal or Aurier or Doherty here, I’m talking about Sessignon and Reggie.
Don’t fully agree with your assessment of Davies. He’s been playing well and has held down the left sided defensive position consistently putting in reliable, workmanlike performances. If we had signed a Bastoni or a Skriniar, yes he’s be the back up, but (once again) we didn’t, so having both him and Lenglet is a solid option and based upon what we’ve seen, very functional.
My view is that Davies has deserves far more respect for his efforts.