Report: Antonio Conte wanted 22-year-old Tottenham talent at Inter

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Antonio Conte is expected to start cracking his whip on the Tottenham training ground later today. For Emerson Royal, working with the Italian will be a year in the making.

Tottenham landed the right-back from Barcelona in the summer. The defender cost £25 million and he’s slowly but surely been working his way towards settling in the Premier League.

Things could have been so much different for the Brazilian. According to The Athletic, Royal was one of the players that Conte had identified to replace Achraf Hakimi at Inter.

Of course, Conte would depart way before a replacement was to be sought but Royal could have found himself on his way to the San Siro instead of North London.

Royal was an intriguing signing for Tottenham. Serge Aurier was released at the end of his contract; whilst Matt Doherty has proved a pretty poor signing since checking in from Wolves.

Japhet Tanganga started the season brilliantly, although he’s still relatively raw and is still constantly striving for a degree of consistency.

That saw Spurs pursue Royal. At 22 he has time to develop into a possible Premier League star. So far this season he has made 10 appearances for Tottenham, starting six times in the top-flight.

Royal could kick on at Tottenham under Conte

Hakimi was rated extremely highly by Conte and was eventually offloaded to Inter by the Italian champions.

The fact that the incoming Spurs boss deemed Royal as an ideal replacement speaks volumes about how much he rates him.

The jury has remained out on Royal so far. It’s fair to say that lots of players struggled under Nuno Espirito Santo, however, and perhaps it’ll be a clean slate for lots of players.

The defender is an exciting addition to the Spurs ranks given his potential. Under Conte, Tottenham fans might start to see the real Emerson Royal.