Emerson Royal admits he was 'hurt' by Barcelona exit

Tottenham deadline day signing Emerson Royal has opened up on his short tenure at Barcelona, admitting that he was 'hurt' by the way the club dealt with him this summer.

The full-back had initially joined Barca as part of a co-ownership deal with Real Betis in 2019, before La Blaugrana exercised an option to sign the player outright for an additional £12.6m this summer.

However, after making just three appearances for the club - two of which came from the bench - Emerson was swiftly sold on deadline day to Tottenham Hotspur for £21.5m.

Speaking to Marca following his second move of the summer, Emerson admitted that he believed the club wanted to keep him: "I thought the club wanted me to stay. I played on Sunday as a starter, the next day I woke up and went to training relaxed.

"There I already started to see that there were many things, that Tottenham spoke with Barcelona, that they had almost done it. I didn’t understand anything that was happening because I didn’t know anything.

“By the afternoon, the club called me because they wanted to speak with me and there they told me they wanted to sell."

The full-back also stated that the decision to sell was, unsurprisingly, due to the club's financial difficulties - difficulties which also forced the sale of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann.

"They [the clubs directors] began to tell me that the club's situation was not good, that it [the club] was going through a difficult time and that it was better for them to sell," he added.

“I repeated my intention to stay because I had a dream of playing here and contribute to Barcelona."

The full-back revealed that he was 'hurt' by the decision to sell him, and believed there were 'better ways' to rectify the situation at the club.

The good news for Emerson though is that he is now set to go straight into the Tottenham Hotspur starting XI and link up with a team flying high on the back of three wins to start their Premier League campaign.