AC Milan are looking to do some business early in the summer transfer window to help the new head coach settle in, and they spoke with the agents of Emerson Royal.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write this morning, Milan are expected to follow a familiar formula by signing a player from the Premier League who is not in the best moment and help him revive his career.
It has been repeated for years because it almost always works: Fikayo Tomori, Olivier Giroud, Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are among those who arrived from England and grew, with Emerson Royal the next candidate.
The meeting
Yesterday, while all the right-backs currently in the squad – Davide Calabria, Alessandro Florenzi, Pierre Kalulu and Filippo Terracciano – boarded a flight to Australia, Emerson’s representative disembarked at Casa Milan.
In the face to face meeting with the Rossoneri directors, other players were also discussed, but the Emerson chapter logically occupied part of the conversation. He is the first target for the flank that Milan intends to strengthen in the summer.
His name has been in the notebook of Milan for some time because he meets the identikit of the kind of player sought by the management trio of Giorgio Furlani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Geoffrey Moncada.
More specifically, he is 25 years old which means there is room to grow, yet he has international experience and above all a certain inclination to push up on the right side, as Milan want their right-back to do under the incoming coach Paulo Fonseca.
Pros, cons and the alternative
Emerson Royal (who would occupy a non-EU slot) has a very respectable CV having played in LaLiga with Betis and Barcelona, and in the Premier League with Tottenham.
However, recent times in London have been difficult: he went from being a starter under Antonio Conte to reserve under Ange Postecoglou. Milan could be an opportunity to revive himself, but Tottenham are asking for €30m which would have to be negotiated.
For this reason Tiago Santos was and remains a more than credible alternative. The Portuguese full-back plays at Lille but has only one season at a high level under his belt.
He also has two pretty good cards to play: he costs significantly less than Emerson Royal, between €10-12m, and knows Fonseca’s style perfectly given the Portuguese made him a starter.
Emerson ONLY on load with OPTION to buy. Too expensive to buy immediately. And probably too bad to buy anyway.
*loan
Yuk very bad option
30M for that useless log is shot in the knee 101
Useless player
this is ridiculous
they should get Dumfries who is unsettled with S.INZAGHI AND have a yr left
+ they want to not lose him for nothing
+ they have cover Darmian
most importantly he is the best option available and is gettable for 20 + add ons
also we may stop losing the derby bc he has madee Theo look like A bambino who lost his parents
Dumfries is a blind horse. good mentality though.
Theo and Dumfries in the same locker room…
Overrated. And definitely not even close in being the best option available. Every single rb we have is better
Origi 2.0
other than a bit speed and physique there is nothing Royal about him. Technique and tactical he is unpredictable. His passing and crossing is also bad.
I’d rather give jimenez/kalulu/terra more chance at RB smh..
For sure! And they don’t even add a 30M€ hole in the budget!
If we’re gonna go for a RB (for some reasons even though we already have like 5), at least go for a good one ffs…
and 30M ? I’d rather exhaust our summer budget on a striker+DM then decide what to do with what remains.
This!
Emerson leao 30m ??!! Wow… Too good to be true.. haha
Sign Tiago Santos for 10-12 million instead. Emerson Royal isn’t worth it.
Milan’s sweet spot for “non-essential” positions seems to be around 20mil. That rules Emerson out.
This management is so lost….
30M???? LOL