Although nobody would mistake Richarlison for being Erling Haaland or even Joao Pedro, the Brazilian international has been the best striker on Tottenham Hotspur this season. That's not really a high compliment, given how invisble Randal Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke have been lately, but a reflection of the entire 2025/26 season really emphasizes just how important Richy has been to the club.
He has his flaws, obviously, and he has never been a 60 million euro player for Tottenham. At the same time, he is the only player on Spurs with double digit Premier League goals this season at 10 - and nobody else has even half that - and there are only two other players with more than his four assists (and neither of them happen to be healthy right now).
So Richarlison just might be the MVP of the 2025/26 season for Tottenham when you factor in the reality that the very best players on Tottenham probably don't qualify because of the sheer number of matches they have missed due to injury.
Richarlison isn't as bad as they say
But then there is another concept Tottenham fans have to think about as a branching point off the discussion of Richarlison's value this season. Tottenham have been one of the worst teams in European football this season and have only just gotten themselves out of the relegation places. Their midfield has been overrun all season long. Before Roberto De Zerbi arrived, there was no progression or real patterns of play, and the strikers were starved of chances.
And when you put that into context, then Richarlison never really stood a chance. He was in and out of the lineup, competing with Kolo Muani and Solanke for minutes, and isolated while running around for scraps in a system that wasn't really even a system, especially with how much Thomas Frank's vision of football was built on sheer cowardice.
Richarlison's 10 goals look even better under that lens, and when Tottenham Hotspur think about how they are rebuilding their squad this summer transfer window, especially if they remain in the Premier League and have more room to maneuver (and more tough decisions to make), Richarlison's chances of staying have to be higher than some may think.
Because if Richy is showing a great attitude, healthier than before, scoring more goals than his teammates, creating more assists than the other strikers, and performing passably well on mere scraps, then maybe Tottenham have been undervaluing him this whole time. Tottenham, as a whole, have been terrible, but a lot of what has been so terrible about this team has made the individuals, like Richarlison, look even worse than they really are and even shrouded over positives worth praising.