Tottenham Hotspur rounded off their summer transfer business of incomings with the arrival of Emerson Royal from Barcelona.
The Brazilian international arrived in North London in a €25million (£21.3million) deal from the Catalan giants.
Emerson has admitted that he was left impressed with the club’s Hotspur Way training facility after he started to research ahead of his transfer and also received glowing reports from the likes of Sergio Reguilon, Lucas Moura and Giovani Lo Celso.
The 22-year-old revealed that the hunger which Spurs showed to bring him to North London attracted his attention over other proposals and soon told his family that he had made his mind up of where he wanted to play his football.
The right-back has had a baptism of fire since coming to the Premier League having started in the recent defeats against Crystal Palace and Chelsea, while highlighting that the competitiveness of the English top flight was also something which appealed to him.
Emerson insisted that he is now focused on Spurs challenging for silverware.
He told the official Spurs match day programme (volume 114, issue 06) ahead of the NS Moura tie: “In the summer, I was listening to some conversations. At the time, I knew there was an interest, but I was at Barcelona, and I thought it was just a conversation between clubs. It was on the last day of the window though when I heard the proposal, and what caught my attention the most was Tottenham’s will to have me here,”
MORE SPURS STORIES
“I had a family meeting the same day, and I said, ‘I want to leave, I’m going there!’ As I say to everyone, ‘if you have the chance to play in the Premier League, you have to take it’.
“Those who see it from the outside can see that it is a spectacle, but when you experience the Premier League, it’s something different. It is a league with a lot of teams that are going to fight at the top of the table. It’s possible to identify at least six teams that are going to come in strong. That is the most striking thing!
“You come out of a league that has favourites (to win the league), and you come into the Premier League, which has no favourites. You can’t pick just one favourite. It is a competitive league and that’s what it’s like – to compete at a high level.
“The training centre here is fantastic as well. I had already talked to Lucas Moura, Giovani Lo Celso, Sergio Reguilon and other people who have been here before and they spoke very highly of the training centre.
“I had never even seen a picture of it before, but when I heard I might be coming to Tottenham, I started researching. When I arrived, I saw that the structure here is fantastic, not only with the training, but also the people here are exceptional. They are very welcoming.
“I know I’ve moved to a massive club in the biggest league in world football. This is an excellent team, full of good professionals, and it’s a team that is capable of competing and finishing high up in the table.
“This is what the project means to me. I have the desire to develop at this club and they have made me feel wanted. I’m very grateful to them for bringing me here.
“I can guarantee supporters that I will give my all to help drive the club back to where I feel it belongs – in the top positions, as well as in cup competitions.”
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
