Just over two weeks ago Richarlison was playing up front for Tottenham at Brentford on the opening day of the season and now he finds himself unwanted and in limbo.
The Richarlison situation has been a messy one for the club and the player. The 29-year-old played a full part in pre-season throughout the summer, scored goals and was the man up top for the visit to the Gtech Community Stadium as Spurs kicked off their Premier League campaign.
However, the cracks had already started to show out in Sydney during the club's summer tour when football.london asked Roberto De Zerbi what was happening with the Brazilian's future and his contract situation.
"I don’t know. I like him as a player, as a guy, it’s unbelievable his attitude, behaviour, but at the end we have to respect what he wants to do. We know, every one of us knows what he wants to do, but for me he’s still an important player because it’s not so easy to find another striker like Richarlison because Richarlison scored goals and he knows the way," said the Italian.
When football.london pressed on whether the striker had asked to leave, De Zerbi added: "I don’t know, I didn’t understand well because sometimes he said to stay, sometimes he leaves and we have to speak anyway. There is not any problem. He’s a lovely guy. All of us love him. The team-mates, the club, the staff, because he works hard every day, seriously every day, and we can’t say anything on the pitch."
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De Zerbi was then critical of Richarlison's performance at Brentford on the opening day of the season, as he was with most of his players that day, and the forward would not play another minute in the next two games against Charlton and Newcastle. He was left out of the squad for the latter game entirely.
When football.london asked why, the Spurs boss would only say: "Richarlison, I don’t know. He said too many times he wants to leave."
Tottenham thought they had found an exit for the player as talks progressed with Everton but it never reached its conclusion, with Richarlison unhappy with how it was dealt with.
The player took to social media, posting: "After everything I’ve been through in the last few years, I’ve decided that NEVER AGAIN will anyone decide my future for me. I went through a lot of bad things, and almost all of them happened because decisions were made by other people. Pressure, threats, retaliation - none of that scares me. I’ve been through far worse, believe me.
"I’ve always made it clear, every time I had the chance, that leaving for another club would only happen if it was also good for the club. If it wasn’t, I would never accept it… just like I didn’t accept it when everything was going badly and they needed me. I stayed and gave everything. So I hope they treat my situation with the same respect I’ve always shown Spurs and everyone who worked with me during this period. Just don’t try to decide for me."
He then added: "If they reach an agreement between Spurs and Everton, I will return to my beloved club. My intention was to go back to the place where I was very happy, yes, but the negotiations happened only in the way certain people wanted, and it will no longer be like that. Despite all this turmoil, I am under contract at Spurs and will remain at the club’s disposal."
Richarlison did not go to Everton and he is not at the club's disposal as when the English transfer window shut, along with many of Europe's, De Zerbi decided to leave the Brazilian out of his registered squad for the Premier League season ahead. Instead Xavi Simons, currently out until the turn of the year with an ACL injury, took the 17th and final non-homegrown player spot.
Richarlison is now training away from his team-mates, but on the same first team pitches at Hotspur Way as a solution is sought.
De Zerbi made it clear where the fault lay for the situation.
"Richarlison he decided everything alone. He spoke with me at the beginning of the pre-season and told me his idea and desire was to leave," said the 47-year-old. "At the end we go to bring another striker and like I said at the beginning of the pre-season, I want to keep the players, just the players that want to stay and be proud and with the right passion to stay here. Then for everything and other problems, it is not my business and not my job.
"It is the responsibility of the club. I can’t say nothing because I didn’t decide anything. The message of Richarlison from the beginning of the season has been very clear. I accepted that and for me nothing [to say]."
He added: "You don't know one important thing, at the beginning of pre-season I spoke to Richarlison and asked him if he wanted to extend his contract because I was happy to keep him with us, and he didn't want to. Richarlison is a good player. He was important last season. He's a good guy, but in the end, I had to stop myself putting pressure on the players if they show me they want to leave. So I'm sorry for him but we have to go to another page and work with Dominic Solanke and Omar Marmoush."
The problem now is where can Richarlison go?
"If a player says 'I want to leave, I want to leave, I want to leave', you have to have an offer behind you otherwise what are you doing?" De Zerbi explained. "And the right offer for him I think arrived after the transfer market closed. We received an offer before the transfer market closed and he didn't accept."
That other offer was believed to be from Trabzonspor but in the end no move materialised to the club before the Turkish transfer window closed last Friday.
So what's left? The Saudi Pro League was one potential destination with interested clubs in recent years. However, despite some suggestions online that the window remains open until next month, the league itself announced it had shut on Sunday evening.
The Portuguese window also closed on September 4, with a later deadline next week for youth players, which rules out a reunion with Marco Silva at Benfica.
The only realistic transfer option remaining is a move home to Brazil, with their transfer window open until this Friday. Flamengo have been credited with interest before and his friend and former Spurs team-mate Emerson Royal is at the Rio club.
Supporters of Vasco da Gama, the Brazilian club Richarlison supported as a youngster, have tried to push a #RicharlisonNoVasco (#RicharlisonAtVasco) campaign on social media in recent days. Richarlison also has close ties to Fluminese where he came to prominence before his move to Watford and the Premier League in 2017.
For the moment, Richarlison is no longer posting his own words on social media but instead reposting videos on TikTok of his goals and also a telling one of Brazilian ESPN journalist Renato Senise explaining the situation from the player's perspective.
In that video the reporter claimed that Richarlison had good offers to leave Tottenham last season, including one from the Saudi Pro League, but Spurs wanted him to stay because of their situation in the table. The player is said to have agreed to do so in order to help the side and ended up as their top scorer last season.
Then Senise reported that Richarlison went to De Zerbi this summer and said that if any good offers for him and the club came in then he might leave if it suited all parties.
So when the Tottenham boss came out with the comment to football.london about Richarlison being confusing as he sometimes says he wanted to leave and others that he wants to stay, Senise said that upset the player. The reporter claimed that the striker never asked to leave, only saying that if an offer came in that was right for all concerned then he would go.
Senise also reported that the Everton offer to Richarlison was very low compared to others the player had received from other clubs so despite being happy to return to a club close to his heart, the offer made no financial sense for him and his family, but he felt in the aftermath as if the narrative was formed to make him the villain in the story.
So now Richarlison will be waiting to see what arises in the final days of the Brazilian market otherwise he will spend the next four months on the sidelines watching on as his career is paused and his international prospects harmed.
He could sit out his contract until January or next summer, as Danny Rose once did after being left out of the club's squad, but Spurs do hold an option to extend Richarlison's deal if they wish.
There have been suggestions in the media that they could come to a mutual conclusion to end his contract, as they did with former record signing Tanguy Ndombele a couple of years ago, but that's a big financial hit to take on a striker who does have clubs interested in him unlike the Frenchman.
It's a sad situation for a player, who despite his injury issues before last season, always gave everything to the Tottenham cause. It's a mess for all concerned and when that Brazilian window closes on Friday we will know just how awkward it could yet become.