Fabio Paratici has only been in his sporting director role at Tottenham Hotspur for approaching on nine months but some of his early decision-making in the transfer market has been questionable, to say the least.

The Italian supremo arrived in north London with plenty of promise, having held a similar role for 11 years at Serie A giants and perennial winners Juventus, where he was responsible for many encouraging signings - notably ranging from the likes of Paul Pogba and Andrea Pirlo on free transfers to the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.

He got straight into business at Hotspur Way, bringing in Cristian Romero and Pierluigi Gollini on loan from fellow Italian outfit Atalanta, signing Emerson Royal from Barcelona, snatching promising gems up in Bryan Gil and Pape Matar Sarr, and sealing a deadline day swoop for Bianconeri duo Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski in January.

What is most damning is the fact that one of those names has already departed the club on loan after being found out in the Premier League as not being up to scratch - yet.

Whilst another player has been one of the more disappointing signings of recent times, that being Emerson, who cost a whopping £26m - a figure that reportedly raised eyebrows from the Nou Camp.

During the winter transfer window, manager Antonio Conte appeared desperate to sign a new right wing-back despite the Brazilian's arrival in the summer, which only goes to show just how poor he's been.

The Times reported that the Italian head coach was unconvinced by Emerson's potential and ability to play an attacking wide role, whilst also doing his defensive duties.

Adama Traore was targeted but he returned to his boyhood club, Barca, instead. His former Wolverhampton Wanderers teammate has even usurped him in the pecking order in recent outings, too.

17 of the 23-year-old's 20 appearances in the Premier League have been starts and Conte's worries are ever so justified when delving into his figures.

Despite averaging 75 minutes per outing, the £25m-rated dynamo has managed only one assist, has made only one key chance per game and has only accurately delivered 25% of his crosses, as per SofaScore.

Meanwhile, defensively, he's not been that much better. His positional awareness is some of the worst we've seen in recent times, often being caught napping or completely away from where he's supposed to be. Tuesday night was another cold reminder of that as Middlesbrough bagged in extra time.

Such performances have seen him slammed as "terrible" and "horrendous" by Noel Whelan and Jonathan Woodgate, respectively.

From 20 appearances, the former Real Betis star has been part of only three clean sheets and only wins possession back 0.2 times per game, on top of him being dribbled past 1.1 per match, meaning the opposition often gets past him with relative ease.

Emerson has also lost possession a whopping 254 times over the course of the season at an average of 12.7 per outing, via SofaScore. That is surely why Conte is concerned by the right wing-back position.

The 23-year-old is thought to be on wages of around £62k-per-week at Spurs, so that combined with his dire-looking £26m fee means the club have already blown nearly £28m on a struggling star that the manager doesn't even want.

On the above evidence, it's hard to argue a case against Emerson being an absolute disasterclass of a transfer from Paratici.

AND in other news, 0 duels won, 0 tackles made: Conte's £91k-p/w disaster must never play for Spurs again after Boro catastrophe...