Why Arsenal pulled the plug on deal for Tottenham’s Emerson Royal

Emerson’s Tottenham struggles

Tottenham would sign Emerson Royal from FC Barcelona on transfer deadline day during the 2021 summer window.

The Brazilian is believed to have set the club back €30m, and is also understood to have attracted interest from Spurs’ north London rivals, Arsenal, over the summer.

Since making the switch to Tottenham, Emerson has not had the best of times.

The right-back featured for 90 minutes vs Crystal Palace on his debut, coming in for heavy criticism from fans as his new side went on to lose 3-0.

More recently, reports emerged that the Antonio Conte has doubts over Emerson’s ability to play as a right-wing-back.

The Telegraph, meanwhile, reported that sources claim Barcelona still cannot believe Spurs offered to pay £25.8m for Emerson.

Why Arsenal didn’t sign Emerson Royal

So, it is fair to say that Arsenal, who signed Takehiro Tomiyasu instead, dodged a bullet with the Brazilian.

But just how close did the Gunners come to landing the now Tottenham defender?

Well, judging by a recent report from the Guardian, pretty close.

According to the report, talks between Emerson and Arsenal were at an advanced stage and the club’s technical director, Edu, had already got in touch with the player to establish a relationship.

Elsewhere, Arsenal’s analytics department had run the numbers and given Emerson their stamp of approval.

Arsenal had also endured a torrid start to the campaign and were in need of reinforcements at right-back.

All of this, you would have thought, would point to Arsenal snapping up Emerson Royal as quickly as they could.

In the end though, the Gunners did not sign the South American because Mikel Arteta was not convinced, so Arsenal pulled the plug.

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