The signing of Emerson Royal from Spurs in the summer transfer window was one that divided fans, and that theme has continued after his first two starts of the season.
As Calciomercato.com write, winning is always good and doing so by a four-goal margin and with a clean sheet is even better. The positives after the Venezia game were obvious: Christian Pulisic got a goal and an assist, Tammy Abraham scored on his debut, while the centre-back pairing looked more solid.
The good notes don’t stop there: Rafael Leao got an assist and drew a penalty, Theo Hernandez netted after a great move down the left side and Youssouf Fofana showed that he become a central element of the team as a balancer in the midfield.
However, the jury is still out on Emerson Royal. After having a very tough night against Nuno Tavares of Lazio before the break, his performance against the Venetians left some positive ideas, albeit faint. The former Spurs man applied himself in both phases, which is what Paulo Fonseca asks.
Indeed, the Portuguese coach is central in this first phase of building chemistry and settling in because the trust is total. It already seems obvious – despite the fact he missed Saturday’s game due to injury – that Fonseca trusts him more than the captain Davide Calabria.
At the moment it is a ‘glass half empty’ situation for Emerson because he must also overcome the skepticism of a part of the fans and the media, who were expecting a right-back like Tiago Santos of Lille who perhaps has a higher ceiling.
Supporters also question the strategy of Geoffrey Moncada and co.: why spend €15m on the Brazilian instead of allocating them to a midfielder like Manu Koné? The current Roma player was probably more useful to this Milan than Emerson, in the eyes of many.
“Supporters also question the strategy of Geoffrey Moncada and co.: why spend €15m on the Brazilian instead of allocating them to a midfielder like Manu Koné?”
Kone, a player most fans have never seen play. There’s nothing special about him.
While I didn’t watch Koné before and was never impressed by him, he did look good during France’s last game against Belgium and with Bennacer’s injury, having him as an additional foreigner seemed to be more justifiable.
I do understand people another RB especially now that Florenzi is injured, that Kalulu has been pushed out and Terraciano is not convincing, but why Royal out of all people ?
“I do understand people another RB especially now that Florenzi is injured, that Kalulu has been pushed out and Terraciano is not convincing, but why Royal out of all people ?”
Because Moncada is lazy as f***. He found a note from 3-4 years back where he had written Royal = GOAT and he didn’t bothered to look elsewhere because he wanted to enjoy the summer vacation.
Why spend 15M on Emerson when there was half a dozen better options for a similar price and lower salary?
When we already had 5 RBs including the captain.
(Calabria, Florenzi, Kalulu, Terraciano and Jiminez)
It was probably the worst position we could’ve targeted. In one fell swoop they managed to undermine the club captain, and fellow Scudetto winners, and two prospects.
I agree 100% with you on this!
Kalulu is one of those players who always looks so good on the ball, he oozes class. It’s a mighty shame.
How do we get rid of Emerson now? I’m already sick of the sight of him
For me this is one of the worst transfers in memory, up there with Origi!
I still think Kalulu can be a better RB than Royal, and he can be a CB if needed.
I hope Royal can prove me wrong.
Cafu in his 50s is still 100x the player Emerson ever will be. Royal makes even Kevin Constant look like a champion.
If we are going to have a full back who gives up goal chances every game, why not just play a youth team player, at least they can learn and improve.
It just gets me so frustrated
This!!! Absolutely. AND WE PAID 15-20M€ FOR THIS GUY???!!!
We need to be careful with building a narrative. He’s a Milan player now and should be supported.
This is again the issue with the media’s coverage of the transfer market. The media decides who is a winner and loser often even before they’ve stepped foot on the pitch.
Look at the contrasting coverage of Pavlovic and Emerson. Both have been at fault for goals, but we’re supposed to somehow look past the former.
Indeed we’re in this position because the media narrative around Calabria.
And of course the media has decided that Reijnders is a big success despite him never really doing anything for Milan.
It’s all narrative and BS. Speculation over facts. A male version of some celebrity gossip magazine where people speculate about who makes the best couple.
“Look at the contrasting coverage of Pavlovic and Emerson. Both have been at fault for goals, but we’re supposed to somehow look past the former.”
Oh right, Emerson had done plenty of positive things on the pitch while Pavlovic hasn’t shown anything… Yeah, sounds about right.
If you cannot see the difference between those two, I think you need binoculars – or a guide dog – instead of glasses.
I don’t care about the nice things Pavlovic did on the pitch with his cultured left foot.
I care about us conceding goals.
Romagnoli also looked great but it took Pioli’s brave decision to drop him for us to stop conceding goals and build a Scudetto winning run.
“I don’t care about the nice things Pavlovic did on the pitch”
“I don’t care about the nice things Pavlovic did on the pitch” and also “He’s a Milan player now and should be supported.”
So… Which is it? Or does the choosing you narrative thing only apply to others? 🙂
He had a good game against Venecia, defensively speaking. So I don’t know what all the fuss is about
He gifted another goal. Again. But VAR pulled it back.
And there’s also the thing that he contributes NOTHING to Milan’s play. Nothing. Not offensively and not defensively. Probably won’t say a word in the locker room either.
Emerson Royal is a disaster. It is evident he does not know what he has to do on the pitch. Even against Venezia he gifted them the goal, which VAR eventually pulled back. Lpool and Inter are going to skin him alive. Hope am wrong.
Unfortunately you’re not…
That was a good sale for Spurs. I couldn’t see us getting more than €10 for Royale.
The effort is there but the quality is sadly missing.
OMG 10m! From who?
I would let him go for free in January if possible
He’s got to overcome some scepticism, yes, but he deserves a chance to do so.
I don’t see why spending the money on a 3rd or 4th choice midfielder would have been a better investment than in a starting right-back, when a lot of people were critical of Calabria last season.
Wouldn’t have been my first choice either, but clearly the management team think there’s something in there that can be redeemed and expecting it to happen overnight rather than over a period of games is unrealistic IMO.
Encouraging news everyone, Dimarco might miss the game against us! We must be thankful for small mercies.
selling emerson royala will be hardest thing as getting rid with origi and ballo toure i would rather playe giroud at rb than him 15 million wasted when we had kalulu and we could have bought bellanova but no they searched probaly on video and saw sarcasm people sying he was a goat and thought he was good but no he isnt good enough for futuro let alone serie a hopefullly he does good but it isnt looking bright he was the only one that didnt impress against venezia
As a Spurs fan, I was getting more and more desperate to see Emerson Royal leave given how long his move to to Milan took.
He is the worst player I ever saw play for Spurs and I was over the moon to see the back of him. Absolutely terrible player, cannot defend – is always a yard off the ball, and offers nothing in attack.
AC Milan have made a huge error of judgement with this signing, mark my words.
I hope you guys appreciate what we did for you… How about you buying Origi or Ballo-Tourette in return? 😉