On August 12th, Emerson Royal left Tottenham Hotspur and completed a permanent move to AC Milan.
The Serie A side chased the right-back for most of the window. They initially refused to meet Tottenham’s demand, before reaching an agreement for around €15m plus €5m bonuses.
Journalist Gianni Visnadi spoke to Sky, relayed by TuttoMercatoWeb. He claims the Serie A side paid more than what the 25-year-old was actually worth to Tottenham.
Milan advisor Zlatan Ibrahimović was in charge of the club’s summer business, along with technical director Geoffrey Moncada.
The Rossoneri have picked up two points from three league games. Paulo Fonseca left Rafael Leão and Theo Hernández out of the starting lineup in their 2-2 draw against Lazio.
The duo came off the bench in the second half, but didn’t join the rest of the group while the manager was giving instructions during the cooling break.
Former AC Milan midfielder Zvonimir Boban was critical of the Swede, stating that he’s not aware of Ibrahimović’s role at the San Siro. The journalist has now joined Boban and even blamed the advisor for not supporting Fonseca.
Visnadi then used the 25-year-old right-back’s arrival from Tottenham as an example to criticise Ibrahimović’.
“That’s where [in Leão- Hernández case] Ibrahimović was missing. Beyond the roles, they entrusted him with an enormous role given his modest experience: he should have prevented Fonseca from reaching the breaking point with his two most important players, but we all talked about it too little because we only concentrated on the exclusion of the two, who had just restarted the match,” he said.
“There are a million things that don’t work in Milan. There is no sporting director at Milan: they spent money, but they spent it badly. There is no one with the experience needed to make the right deals at the right prices.
“One above all: in England they are still rubbing their hands for having dismissed someone like Emerson Royal, who arrived to solve problems that he won’t solve. Milan only arrived at the end of the transfer market on Fofana, their best signing, after chasing him for two months.”