Marco Silva’s love for Richarlison is going to cost more than $80 million to Premier League clubs.
First there was the approximately $15 million required to bring the 20-year-old from Fluminese to Watford.
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Silva was hired by Everton this summer after the Hornets fired him for flirting with the same gig in November, and now the manager is ready to pay $65 million more for Richarlison. The Liverpool Echo pointed out his admiration for the player at his Watford signing last summer:
“When you look at other Brazilian players some of them are not too direct like him,” Silva said. “He is a worker. Everybody who saw him in a training session will understand what I told you. The good things about Brazilian footballers he has and I am really happy with him.”
The left winger scored five goals and added five assists in his first Premier League season before turning 21 in May.
Five and three of those came in the first 13 matches of the season, when he was a bit of a monster (good kind) in the air. Far from a singular player, Richarlison was credited with as many as eight tackles in a game (Southampton, Sept. 19).
Perhaps he burnt out over the course of the season, and that has to be the hope of Everton as it bets that Richarlison on the left, Gylfi Sigurdsson centrally, and Theo Walcott on the right can feed Cenk Tosun and/or Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Richarlison was far less effective once Silva left Vicarage Road, and the player was only 20 for the majority of last season. Will the reunion and experience justify the big spend?