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With Emmanuel Frimpong set to possibly make his debut tomorrow, Martin Jol dove back into his proverbial ship The Adventurer to bring in more depth to help Fulham finish as high as possible in a season so far marred by poor form and old age.
He’s supposedly brought in Urby Emanuelson from AC Milan, a versatile left-winger who can also play attacking midfield or left back – much needed versatility on a club with arguably more holes right now than locked down positions.
The deal is NOT COMPLETE (no confirmation from Fulham), as he still needs to undergo the famed Fulham medical, which will take place tomorrow. We know that from a tweet from his account (the Twitter account is not verified, but from seeing his tweets, it’s got pictures from various events he’s done, and even a train ride with the team, as well as tweets in Dutch – it’s definitely him). The only confirmation we have is from a representative of his (and Martin Jol’s) Mino Raiola, who said “Robinho will stay at Milan. Urby will be on loan at Fulham for the rest of the season and then he will return to Milan.” Raiola was already in England for the Balotelli deal, which he brokered as well, so he made a pit stop in London to chat about Emanuelson.
Earlier this month, his agent Brian Berkeef said, “Urby is not happy at the moment. Every player is going to be unhappy when they do not play regularly, and so is Urby. His lack of playing time in recent weeks kind of surprises me. I don’t know the reason behind it.”
A little more about Emanuelson:
The 26-year-old has made 71 appearances for his current club AC Milan, scoring 4 goals. He’s more of a pace player rather than a finisher, as seen by his 11 assists in his AC Milan career (5 this year in 20 appearances).
He was signed by AC Milan from Ajax where he came through the youth ranks and spent 7 senior team seasons, including playing under Martin Jol. The fee for the transfer was about €2.5 million.
Emanuelson has been capped by the Dutch National team 16 times.
I’d imagine he will return to Milan after this season, without Fulham making an attempt to buy. Urby hasn’t gotten much playing time at Milan, but mostly that’s due to Robinho with a place. It’ll be much easier for Milan to sell Robinho in the summer, and then Emanuelson will find himself with much more playing time. I don’t expect this to be for much more than half a season.
In other transfer news, Fulham and Everton were both looking to loan striker Igor de Camargo from Borussia Monchengladbach but it appears he’s snubbing both to go to Hoffenheim on a permanent deal. The Daily Mail reports both Everton and Fulham wanted an option to buy after the loan expired, but Hoffenheim offered better personal terms than both.
