Tottenham new boy Mohammed Kudus has been welcomed into the club in hilarious fashion by Richarlison. The 24-year-old former West Ham attacker was announced as a Spurs player on Thursday after signing a six-year contract.
Kudus will join Thomas Frank's squad, which is set to have quite the summer makeover with Morgan Gibbs-White also looking set to move. His £60million release clause has been met by Daniel Levy and Co as they ramp up their summer recruitment following a slow start.
Kudus is the first major deal to be completed, though, and makes the switch across London with plenty of baggage. Last season he was sent off against Tottenham in a dramatic 4-1 loss for the Hammers.
Then under Julen Lopetegui, West Ham took an early lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in mid-October. Kudus scored and could easily have put his side in front before that as well only for Guglielmo Vicario to deny him.
Tottenham were yet to reach anywhere near the nadir of their season to come but had still lost three of their opening seven games entering this match. They would go on to lose 10 of the next 15 as things slumped to a serious halt with Ange Postecoglou.
However, on this occasion, they fought back at home to win 4-1. Dejan Kulusevski got an equaliser before half-time with Son Heung-Min and Yves Bissouma netting twice in quick succession after an own goal to leave the game heading in one direction.
Kudus and his team were shell-shocked. That did not stop him from being involved in the major flashpoint of the whole afternoon. When chasing back to tackle Micky van de Ven, things spilled over.
Kudus' initial attempts to win the ball back were unsuccessful but as Van de Ven fell to the floor, Kudus continued to kick away. Van de Ven leapt to his feet in anger, pushing Kudus firmly in the chest.
Kudus responded by shoving back as a massive brawl unfolded. Richarlison was quick to join in, going over to Kudus, whilst Pape Matar Sarr also approached the Ghanaian.
As soon as Richarlison had gotten involved, he was on the floor, bouncing off Kudus and into referee Chris Kavanagh. He was left face down with his head in his hands on the grass next to Van de Ven in the same position whilst Kudus took on four Tottenham shirts all at once.
Edson Alvarez, Jarrod Bowen, Carlos Soler, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were all trying to hold him back with Brennan Johnson and Destiny Udogie in the melee. As Kudus was pulled away by his own teammates, he had one last parting shot at Sarr, putting two hands onto his face.
Once this was checked by VAR, Kudus was sent off and then handed a three-match ban. He went five games without playing for West Ham before returning in early December.
Unsurprisingly, Richarlison hasn't forgotten the incident. Writing on Instagram after the Kudus announcement, he posted an image of Kudus squaring up to Van de Ven in the initial bust-up before the pile-on.
"Welcome to the spurs family kudus [smiling face]", he posted. Richarlison can be seen in the background of the picture just as he was about to go and get himself involved.