A couple of years ago this week Richarlison made an emotional goodbye to Everton but this controversial move continues to provide more questions than answers and nobody seems to have been left entirely satisfied by it.
Ahead of the first anniversary, this correspondent recently received a text message from an old friend who is a Liverpool fan, asking whether I still thought Tottenham Hotspur had Everton off with the Richarlison fee. My reply went something along the lines of £50million plus add owns being a relatively modest figure in today’s inflated transfer market for Brazil’s number nine, that the Blues could have potentially got more for him had the World Cup been held in the summer like it usually is (he netted three goals in the finals), and if Spurs didn’t know how to utilise him properly then it was their problem…
Reds have always struggled to appreciate him though and following a war of words with Jamie Carragher, the former Kop Idol declared: “He just winds people up that lad, Richarlison. He winds me up.” It’s only since the Brazilian offered an olive branch in the shape of inviting Carragher onto the pitch for a kick about at the Etihad that the Reds old boy started to see the ex-Blues ace in a new light
Richarlison has always worn his heart on his sleeve, though, and along with his silky skills – something that you’d expect from a forward player from his country – a willingness to graft endeared him so much to Evertonians. From the moment of his two-goal debut at a rainy Molineux on the opening day of the 2018/19 season, it was love at first sight.Here was a player that rose to become an Olympic gold medal winner while at Everton – he was also top scorer in the tournament at the Tokyo Games – but although he arrived at the club when they were splashing out on players from Barcelona and then played at Goodison Park under the great Carlo Ancelotti (incredibly it’s understood that the generation gap between the two ensured he initially didn’t realise the Italian had been a world-class player in his own right before going into coaching), his final days with the Blues were spent fighting against relegation.
Leave a Reply