Tottenham Hotspur are less than a month away from the start of the 2025/26 Premier League season, and while they do their best to close a transfer for Morgan Gibbs-White and integrate the confirmed new signing Mohammed Kudus to their new-look tactical system under Thomas Frank, they are still juggling the prospect of selling a couple of unneeded veteran players.
Center midfielder Yves Bissouma appears to be the biggest priority for Tottenham to transfer in the summer 2025 transfer window, but the name of forward Richarlison has also been floated around frequently in transfer news nuggets this year.
Richarlison is coming off another injury-plagued season for Tottenham, and Dominic Solanke has always been preferred to the Brazilian international since the English forward's 65 million pound signing last summer. Tottenham had actually tried to sell Richarlison during the summer 2024 window, but the 28-year-old was uninterested in moving to Saudi Arabia.
Although Richarlison's transfer away from Tottenham seemed almost inevitable at the beginning of the summer transfer window, it appears the momentum is swinging against a move - and that includes momentum generated by Frank.
Thomas Frank is a believer
Ahead of Tottenham's friendly on Saturday against Burnley, Frank delivered a particularly interesting quote about Richarlison, nestled into a general conversation about his options on the front line, via The Spurs Express, "I think Richarlison is a good striker too, I know he’s been struggling with injuries, I think he was having a strong end to the season and was very important for the team to win the Europa League trophy."
It could all just be lip service, but there are elements of truth to what Frank is saying. Firstly, Richarlison IS a good striker. He was one of the best players in the Premier League at Everton, which is why Tottenham spent 60 million pounds to sign him in 2022. Even Real Madrid and PSG were linked to Richarlison at the time, who was a regular starter for Brazil at the previous year's Copa America tournament.
And even for Tottenham last season, Richarlison showed good goal-scoring instincts. As Frank notes, his record wasn't bad at the end of the campaign, and he was one of the few players who was actually trying to make things happen. He ended up scoring just four goals last season when you look at it, but when you consider he played only 500 Premier League minutes, that's the best haul on efficiency on the team. Perhaps Frank sees a reason to keep Richarlison and a path to maximizing his potential. Why give up on a talented player when you haven't had an honest try at helping him?