Tottenham Hotspur star Emerson Royal has spent £800,000 of his own money to become a better player and impress manager Antonio Conte – which is starting to pay off.
The 24-year-old opened the scoring in Spurs’ 2-0 win over West Ham United on Sunday to help his side move back into the Premier League’s top four.
It’s a remarkable turnaround given Emerson’s reputation when he first made the move to north London. He left Barcelona to sign a five-year deal with Spurs in 2021 when Nuno Espirito Santo was in charge.
Nuno didn’t last long in the Tottenham Hotspur stadium hot seat, being replaced by Conte later that year. The Italian coach uses a three at the back formation, something Emerson was tipped to impress in.
Emerson was initially told Conte didn’t fancy him in that role. Matt Doherty was regularly chosen ahead of him, although it didn’t dampen his spirits.
According to The Sun, he’s taken several steps to improve his all-around game. The Brazil international purchased a hyperbaric oxygen tank to maintain his fitness levels at home. He uses it after games and posted an image of himself wearing a mask in the tank on Instagram last year.
Emerson’s father is part of his management team and reportedly hired a neuroscientist to help his son manage the pressure of being a Premier League footballer.
Neuroscience involves monitoring the brain’s behaviour and picking up how it functions. It’s seen as a rapidly advancing field and provides positive results for most.
During Conte’s successful stint at Inter Milan, he had Achraf Hakimi at right wing-back who thrived in the role.
Hakimi is now at Paris Saint-Germain and Royal commissioned a scouting report of the Morocco international, who scored seven goals in 45 games for Inter en route to winning Serie A.
In 2021, Conte called Hakimi ‘one of the strongest full-backs in the world’ after improvements at both ends of the pitch.
He declared: “He needed some benches and he accepted it calmly and is eager to learn.
“Now he is one of the strongest full backs in the world. He has also improved a lot in the defensive phase and in the last pass.”
Given how Hakimi took to Conte’s physically demanding system, he’s the perfect case study for Emerson.
He’s now managed to become Spurs’ first-choice right wing-back following Doherty’s departure for Atletico Madrid in the January transfer window.
New signing Pedro Porro is yet to fully settle, meaning Emerson has made 18 league appearances this term.
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