After last night, rumour coming from Tottenham is absolutely bizarre – Our View

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Last night, Antonio Conte decided to introduce Emerson Royal from the bench in the 81st minute, just after Tottenham equalised against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.

Spurs had the momentum on their side, although the Brazilian did very little to help keep the pressure on the Portuguese giants in what was a truly chaotic cameo.

Emerson Royal struggling for Tottenham

In our view, Conte was wrong to bring Emerson Royal back into the fold so quickly after his red card against Arsenal.

The South American has been a weak point for Spurs so far this season, and that was apparent once again in his ten minute cameo appearance last night.

As WhoScored shows, Emerson attempted just eight passes in that time, and failed to find a teammate with 50% of those efforts.

One misplaced pass in particular ignited anger in the stands, as the South American bizarrely decided to play a no-look pass to Bryan Gil in a promising position, only to kick the ball out of play and ruin the attack.

It led to Conte shouting at the Brazil international, while also pointing to his head as if to say the 23-year-old should think about his decision making more.

Emerson also failed to embark on a single dribble, nor did he make a tackle, while his one attempted cross proved to be inaccurate.

The Tottenham No.12 delivered his ten minute disaster-class just 24 hours after The Times revealed that Spurs hope to send Djed Spence out on loan in January.

In our view, that would be a baffling decision, even more so after Emerson performed as he did last night.

Spence deserves a chance ahead of Emerson at Tottenham

Of course, we are not privy to what goes on in training at Hotspur Way, so nobody knows for sure why Spence has only played three minutes of Premier League football this season.

However, the England Under-21 international can surely do better than Emerson, who has been given 55 appearances to prove himself at Spurs, with three goal involvements to show for it.

That simply is not good enough for a wing-back in a Conte side.

Spence registered eight goal involvements from right-back alone last season, so if he is loaned out while Emerson continues to start, it would suggest Tottenham really aren’t thinking straight.