Richarlison said on social media that he should not be painted as the villain, but the Tottenham Hotspur striker has no choice but to accept the role after his latest move. According to Alasdair Gold of Football.London, the last minute transfer deal between Tottenham and Brazilian Serie A side Vasco da Gama has fallen apart despite a reporter fee agreed between the clubs. And the deal has fallen apart because Richarlison has made it so, with Gold reporting that he was unable to agree to personal terms.
That makes it three deals collapsed for Richy. He blocked the reunion with Everton, spurning a dream move to Goodison Park because he did not want to accept less wages. Spurs were then uninterested in selling him to Trabzonspor for 20 million euros, which was their mistake, to be honest. And now, a potential 15-20 million euro deal to find some sort of solution for Richy before the final league transfer window in Brazil ends has collapsed, too.
Roberto De Zerbi came under fire from even some Tottenham fans for declaring publicly that Richarlison wanted to leave, which miffed the player himself since he states that he made no such claim behind the scenes. De Zerbi accused Richarlison of waffling back and forth and not being open and honest about his true intentions.
Richarlison is making things harder for Tottenham
Right now, Richarlison looks like the villain. He has blocked two reasonable transfers to positive destinations for him, and he is willing to spend the entire 2026/27 Premier League season stealing a paycheck from Tottenham before scoring a huge deal in free agency for himself. And whlie he has every right to do that as a professional under a contract, Tottenham Hotspur fans and De Zerbi have every right to call into question the motives of the player and criticize him for his decision.
Richarlison is not registered to the Tottenham squad even though he led the team in Premier League goals with 11 last season. And whlie it is true that Spurs would have been relegated without his efforts last season, it is also true that the fact that he was this important was emblematic of the problem, looking at how poorly he played this season on Matchday 1.
De Zerbi has not been high on Richarlison and has not viewed him as a building block for the team or even a team player. It looks like he was right about Richy being someone they should move on from and someone who is not being fully transparent about what he really wants.
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