Tottenham’s Premier League squad list dropped with the usual mix of academy hopefuls, familiar names and injured stars given a place on the long road back. One name was missing. The one that screamed from the page by its absence.
Richarlison.
The club’s top scorer last season, 11 goals in 32 league games, has been left in the cold. No place in the squad. No clear way back. For a 29-year-old forward in his supposed prime, it is a brutal kind of limbo.
Spurs have found room for injured talents such as Simons and Odobert, players who will not be available for weeks but still count as part of the project. Richarlison, by contrast, has been cut loose after a summer spent agitating for a move and making it clear he saw his future elsewhere.
Roberto De Zerbi did not try to sugar-coat any of it.
Speaking about the omission, the Tottenham head coach drew a sharp line between the club’s decision and his own principles, while making it obvious where he felt the relationship had broken down.
“It was not my decision. It is the normal decision,” he said. “I think 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. At the end we go to bring another striker in 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.”
That conversation at the start of pre-season now looks like the hinge on which his Spurs career swung. Once Richarlison made it clear he wanted out, the club moved on. The forward started the opening game of the campaign against Brentford, a reminder of his status and his talent, but the ground was already shifting beneath him.
The recruitment drive underlined it. Omar Marmoush arrived from Manchester City. Mykhailo Mudryk came in on loan from Chelsea. Savio followed from City. Each new signing nudged Richarlison further down the pecking order, until there was no place left at all.
De Zerbi stressed that the formalities of registration sit with the hierarchy above him, not with the coaching staff.
“Then for everything and other problems, it is not my business and not my job. It is the responsibility of the club,” he said. “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 there is nothing to say.”
The message, in truth, now runs both ways. Tottenham have responded in the bluntest fashion: if you want out, you are out.
This is where De Zerbi’s wider philosophy bites. He has built his reputation on intense, front-foot football and an equally unforgiving stance on dressing-room dynamics. Harmony, in his view, is not a luxury. It is the foundation.
“If you don’t want to stay here, I don’t want to keep talking in the press conference. Go out – you have the freedom to go out,” he said. “If you don’t want to stay, why do we have to keep you on the list? Why do you have to stay? I’m not Vinai, I’m not the sporting director, I am the coach and I would like to work with the people hungry if they don’t play but happy to stay in this club.”
The words are stark. No grey area, no attempt to massage egos. For De Zerbi, a player who doubts his place at Spurs is already halfway out of the door.
So Richarlison, a Brazil international and last season’s leading scorer, finds himself on the outside looking in while others, some of them yet to kick a ball for the club, are trusted with the future. It is a harsh verdict on his summer stance and a clear warning to anyone else tempted to test the manager’s resolve.
Tottenham have chosen hunger over history. The question now is where Richarlison goes to restart his own story.
