Milan reignite interest in £26m Tottenham star likely to be cut adrift by Postecoglou

AC Milan have reportedly rekindled their interest in signing a Tottenham defensive star this summer as Ange Postecoglou looks to revamp his squad ahead of next season.

The Australian recently admitted that he does not currently have the players at his disposal to play the brand of football he believes will get Spurs back chasing for major honours again.

To that end, a number of first-team stars are fully expected to move on and one of them is likely to be versatile full-back Emerson Royal.

The Brazilian has largely been a mixed bag since arriving in north London in a £25.8million deal from Barcelona in the summer of 2021.

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Predominantly a right-back, Emerson has arguably produced some of his better performances filling in at centre-back when Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were missing earlier in the campaign.

However, the same cannot be said when he switches to the left full-back role, as he has done recently due to injuries to Destiny Udogie and Ben Davies. Indeed, Emerson was really found wanting in the defeats to Chelsea and Liverpool and did not look like a player Postecoglou would want to rely on next season.

And now a fresh report from La Gazzetta dello Sport states that the Spurs man is once again a target for Milan to strengthen their right-back position.

There was talk of 25-year-old moving to the San Siro back in 2021 before Tottenham struck a deal, with both Milan clubs keen on a deal at that time.

Milan already in contact with agents of Emerson

A report from Sempre Milan also reports that Milan have been following Emerson for some time and in recent weeks they have spoken with the agents who represent him.

At this stage, it’s unclear on what sort of a fee Tottenham are after, but they won’t want to lose too much money on a player who has still shown he can almost hold his own in the Premier League and who also has 10 caps for Brazil.

A separate report also suggests that Milan are likely to allocate much of their summer transfer budget on either a striker or midfielder rather than a new right-back.

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Emerson, meanwhile, could be trotted out again at left-back on Saturday when Tottenham host Burnley in the Premier League.

A win for Postecoglou’s men will put them four points behind Villa in the race for fourth spot, with the midlands outfit taking on Liverpool in a big clash on Monday evening.