This summer has been one of will-he-or-won’t-he regarding Richarlison, Tottenham Hotspur’s leading scorer from last season. His five year contract, signed when he joined Spurs from Everton in 2022, expires in 2027, and he’s been linked away from the club for what feels like forever. Richy loves Spurs but has had a tumultuous time in North London — winning an Europa League title, but struggling with injuries and having to play for five different Spurs managers in his three years at the club.
Everton have been making overtures about potentially making a bid to re-sign Richy this summer, though nothing has (yet) come about it. There are rumors that he could exit this summer, be it to Everton, to Saudi Arabia, or back to Brazil, leaving at the time of this article’s posting one senior recognized striker at the club in Dominic Solanke, who is apparently dealing with an injury that’s kept him out of all of Spurs’ friendlies.
However, there is a wrinkle — according to Alasdair Gold in Football.London, Spurs have a clause in Richy’s contract where they can choose to extend his contract a further year to June of 2028, which gives them some flexibility to either demand some concessions if they choose to sell him this summer, or kick the can down the road a year. This was a specialty of Fabio Paratici when he was our co-Sporting Director, and a bunch of Tottenham’s players have this extension clause in their contracts. Apparently that includes Richarlison.
As of right now, Richarlison is almost certainly going to be Spurs’ starting forward in this weekend’s season opener at Brentford. It’s either that or play with a false nine like what we saw in Spurs’ second friendly vs. Hoffenheim last weekend. Even if Spurs were to sign a new striker early this week, it’s unlikely they’ll complete the deal and be ready and fit to play this Saturday.
Honestly, I still don’t know what Spurs will end up doing with Richy this summer, but whatever it is they better decide quickly. If they sign a new striker, I can potentially see him leaving (assuming he actually wants to) but considering we aren’t exactly close to signing a new striker anytime soon, I have my doubts as to whether that will happen. And going into Brentford without our top scorer (and our one healthy natural striker) feels incredibly foolish. If Spurs don’t end up signing a new striker, I can totally see an option where they extend Richy for a year and we go through all of this again next summer.
So let’s put a pin in this for now.