How Thiago Silva tried to hijack Tottenham’s Richarlison transfer
Karan Tejwani
- 8 Sept 2022 08:20 BST
- 3 min read
Richarlison made a big move from Everton to Tottenham over the summer, but he could well have been playing elsewhere in London had an intervention come sooner.
The Brazilian forward made a £60 million move to Antonio Conte’s side – a club record fee – and has been rotating with Dejan Kulusevski in the Spurs’ front-line so far this campaign.
He was Everton’s main attacking threat in his time at the club, and even broke his way into the Brazil squad under Tite, with a chance of making the World Cup squad looking good at the moment.
However, he could well have been playing elsewhere in London, as international team-mate Thiago Silva attempted to convince him of a move to Chelsea, where the defender also plays.
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Silva tried to convince Richarlison
This comes from journalist Fabrizio Romano, who says Silva spoked about the possibility of a move to the Blues – then managed by Thomas Tuchel – over the summer.
However, despite Silva’s best efforts, Richarlison had already agreed a move to Tottenham, and backing out on it would not have been a possibility for the forward.
Chelsea had been looking for an attacking player over the summer having sold Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, and bringing in Raheem Sterling as well as completing a deadline-day move for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Richarlison couldn’t hold back the tears after scoring a brace in front of his friends and family on his #UCL debut 🥹 pic.twitter.com/NHqsqllaFv
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) September 7, 2022
Richarlison, meanwhile, has only recently been finding his feet at Tottenham, getting a string of starts, most notably in Spurs’ opening Champions League group stage match of the season.
He made his debut in the competition in an attacking line consisting of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, and scored twice in five minutes in an impressive first appearance in Europe’s premier club cup competition.
Things could’ve been well different for him on the other side of London – Chelsea have just sacked Tuchel and have endured a difficult start to their campaign, even losing their opening Champions League match to Dinamo Zagreb.
