Journalist Alasdair Gold has expressed his astonishment that Emerson Royal is still at Tottenham Hotspur while others in his position left the club this winter.

What’s the word?

On transfer deadline day, there were a number of rather interesting moves that took place at Spurs. Indeed, while the club managed to land Sporting Lisbon defender Pedro Porro on loan with an obligation to buy, others players left to make space for the new arrival.

The club decided to terminate Matt Doherty's contract to allow him to join Atletico Madrid permanently, while Djed Spence was loaned to French side Rennes.

This means Porro and Emerson will be the right wing-backs trusted to guide the team through the second half of the season. With that in mind, Gold has explained how this is quite a surprising outcome.

While speaking on the Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham podcast, he said: “Who would have thought, the day we heard those cheers of the whole stadium as Emerson Royal was taken off, and he's survived the cull on transfer deadline day. It's incredible!

"It's absolutely amazing that Matt Doherty is no longer a Spurs player and Djed Spence is in France. And Emerson Royal is just sitting there going, 'hey lads, I'm still here!'

“But that's not meant to be disrespectful. I think as a backup, he's absolutely fine, Emerson Royal."

Decision time

Earlier in the campaign during a game against Leeds United, the Spurs fans cheered when Emerson was replaced by Matt Doherty in the 57th minute of the match.

The Brazilian has since spoken about how he personally has dealt with moments like that, telling football.london: "It's not up to me to say whether the crowd's opinion is fair or not. There are people who pay [to watch matches], but there are many people in favour.

"I do not seek to see these questions [about me]. I prefer to focus on doing my best for the club."

Seeing as the crowd seemed quite happy for Doherty to come on in that game, it's not hard to see why there's a bit of surprise that he was sold and Emerson was kept.

However, with 1,094 minutes of action in the league compared to Doherty's 667 this season, Emerson has managed an average WhoScored rating of 6.68, which is only marginally worse than the Irishman's 6.7.

Clearly, there's room for improvement for players - hence the signing of Porro - but Antonio Conte certainly seems to prefer the Brazilian over the likes of Spence and Doherty, even if many who follow the club have their doubts.