Wednesday, August 24

Emerson signs for Irons

West Ham have signed Emerson for £13m plus £2m in add-ons — he is hopefully the long-term successor to the soon-to-be 33-years-old Aaron Cresswell at left back. Having got Emerson Palmieri, now all we need to do is sign Lake to keep my prog rock-loving pal Nigel happy. Hopefully Emerson can ELP us climb up the league and Tarkus to a better position

I saw Emerson play in the Euro 2000 semi-final at Wembley and he looked decent. He also picked up a winners' medal from playing in the final against England (though he was born in Brazil to a mother of Italian heritage). He played 29 times on loan for Lyon last season and only played 33 league games in total for Chelsea, being up against Chilwell, Alonso and lately Cucurella. So at 28 he should still have a lot of mileage left in him. 

That's seven signings now and on paper Emerson, Scamacca, Kehrer, Aguerd, Areola, Downes and Cornet are upgrades on departed squad players like Fredericks, Yarmolenko, Diop, Kral and Vlasic. It's going to take time to bed them all in, but surely in the long-term results will come as it's looking like a stronger squad than last season.

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