Emerson Royal could have ended up at Arsenal and Takehiro Tomiyasu at Tottenham

According to The Athletic (subscription required), Emerson Royal could have ended up at Arsenal and Takehiro Tomiyasu at Tottenham. The rivals’ could have ended up with each other’s new signings after being linked with them previously during the summer transfer window.

It has been an interesting transfer window during the summer. Premier League clubs were once again active as they spent on players but with a little more caution. There were big-money deals such as Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea while other clubs chose not to punt it all in on one or two top players like Spurs.

Now, that the transfer window is over and the fourth game week in the books, an interesting bit of transfer switcheroo has come to the fore. Spurs fans saw the sprightly Emerson getting his debut against Crystal Palace. Yet, he could have been lining up for our rivals, Arsenal. They had spoken to Barcelona over a swap between Emerson and Hector Bellerin.

Instead, they went after Takehiro Tomiyasu after they pulled the plug on Emerson. Speaking of Tomiyasu, he was a big target for Spurs right ahead of the Olympics and a potential deal was also on the cards. Regardless, Tomiyasu was signed by the Gunners when Spurs failed to go after him and it was clear to Arsenal that Emerson was heading to Spurs.

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It was certainly an interesting bit of two transfers heading in one direction and then heading the opposite way. Both players made their bow last weekend with Tomiyasu getting a win and Emerson had to face the loss, There is obvious food for thought on how it might have been if the players had headed to the clubs they were initially linked with.