Former Spurs boss makes Roberto Soldado comparison about new signing

Tim Sherwood has warned Tottenham fans that there is no guarantee Emerson Royal will settle well into life in the Premier League despite his impressive performances at Real Betis. 

Emerson first arrived in Europe in 2019, having been co-owned by Barcelona and Real Betis for the last two seasons.

The right-back enjoyed two impressive campaigns for Betis before the Catalan club exercised the option to buy the defender earlier this summer. 

However, the Brazilian’s stay at the Camp Nou turned out to be short-lived as Spurs announced on transfer deadline day that they had reached an agreement with the La Liga club to buy the defender for a fee of £25.8m

Emerson was thrown straight into the starting eleven against Crystal Palace over the weekend in light of the injuries that Nuno Espirito Santo’s men were hit with during the international break.

The 22-year-old had the tough task of dealing with Wilfried Zaha and, despite the team falling to a damaging 3-0 defeat, the defender came out with credit for his individual performance on debut day. 

Sherwood pointed to the struggles of former Spurs striker Roberto Soldado to suggest that success in La Liga might not necessarily translate to the Premier League.

The former interim Spurs boss told Premier League Productions (11/09/21 at 12:20 pm): “He (Emerson) played a lot of games at Betis, albeit it in the Spanish league. 

“We have had one there at Tottenham as well. He was a centre-forward in Soldado. 

“He came over with a massive reputation, he couldn’t wait to score a bundle of goals in the Premier League. 

“It never materialised. He couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t handle the tempo and the intense competition of the Premier League. 

“Hopefully, for Royal and Tottenham fans, he can be really interesting.”

Spurs Web Opinion 

While we have to see more of Royal before judging him, the evidence of what we saw on Saturday was promising. He certainly seemed to possess the physicality and aggression needed for the Premier League. 

He will not have too many tougher tests than going up against Wilfried Zaha as the Palace man is as good as anyone in one vs one situations. However, Emerson stayed tight to Zaha and still managed to stop him spinning away from him on too many occasions.

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