It's fair to say that Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham have made a mess of the Richarlison situation. The Brazilian, unlikely to play for the club ever again after he was left out of De Zerbi's Premier League squad, would be pretty handy for a side that desperately lacks a finishing touch.
The Spurs asserted when the situation got messy that Richarlison had made it clear at the start of the summer that he wanted to move on. If that was the case, why did he go on tour with the Lilywhites, and end up in De Zerbi's XI for our first outing of the 2026–27 season at Brentford?
The club seemingly weren't actively trying to sell the forward until the final week of the window, when interest from Everton surfaced amid our pursuit of Iliman Ndiaye.
A return to the Toffees didn't transpire, thrusting us into scramble mode. Trabzonspor and Vasco da Gama each made a play after the Premier League's transfer deadline passed, but no dice. Richarlison is currently in limbo, watching on as Dominic Solanke masquerades as a top-flight centre-forward.
Dominic Solanke currently looks miles off the pace
It's worth remembering that Tottenham signed Solanke for an initial £55m three years ago. We knew Harry Kane was irreplaceable, but after a year of using Son Heung-min centrally, Ange Postecoglou pivoted to a recognised No 9.
Solanke was coming off a 19-goal Premier League season with Bournemouth and was regarded as a tried-and-tested option capable of leading Ange's press. I hope you appreciate me staying away from "Premier League-proven".
We've thus entered the third season of the Solanke experience, and it's worsening with time. 2024/25 was actually quite promising, despite a relatively modest output of 16 goals in all competitions. Since then, his brittleness has irked supporters, and a lack of a killer instinct means the striker has consistently underwhelmed in front of goal.
And this is the worst we've seen the 29-year-old. The iteration of Solanke that sauntered around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday was a sorry one, fumbling his lines in the Aston Villa penalty area and offering close to no physical threat. He was miles off the pace, and De Zerbi made that clear post-match.
“His [Solanke's] physical condition is not good enough. Maybe he is not good enough in the confidence at this moment, but many, many things can be better than this moment,” the Italian bluntly assessed.
Perhaps the major ankle injury and subsequent muscle injuries mean we'll never see the best of Solanke in Lilywhite again. Unfortunately, Spurs have got to rely on him until January at the earliest as a result of De Zerbi's Richarlison decision and Omar Marmoush's preference to operate as a Robin rather than a Batman.
These next three weeks are significant for the striker, with the break giving Solanke, who had more fitness issues in pre-season, to reset and work his way back to 100%.
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