“Stay happy my friend” – they were four words of comfort from Richarlison to a tearful young Blue but they also seemed to be a farewell note to all Evertonians from the Goodison Park fans’ favourite. The Brazilian international has enthusiastically interacted with supporters for a long time now, with such activities helping him to improve his command of the English language, and having read mum Karolina Taylor’s tweet that showed her distraught little lad – crying like she did when Gary Lineker left – after she had told him that Richarlison looked like he was going to Tottenham.
Each generation of Blues it seems has these kind of moments whether it’s the sale of Lineker, Alan Ball, Duncan Ferguson, Wayne Rooney, Mikel Arteta or Romelu Lukaku but while it remains to be seen how Richarlison’s legacy ultimately shapes up compared with those other Goodison greats of varying degrees, one thing that isn’t being disputed is his connection with Everton’s loyal but long-suffering fanbase. Lineker in particular was a very different case.
He arrived in 1985 at a time when the Blues were at their absolute pomp having just romped to the League Championship and lifted the European Cup-Winners’ Cup but had the unenviable task of replacing a Richarlison-esque talisman in the shape of Andy Gray. His solitary season with Everton would see the former Leicester City man plunder 40 goals for his club and then secure the Golden Boot at a World Cup finals but with no trophies secured and Howard Kendall’s side agonisingly finishing runners-up to neighbours Liverpool in both the First Division and FA Cup, Lineker was sold to Barcelona for £2.8million.
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While trying to equate the modern day value of historic transfer fees is not an exact science, what is a more straightforward calculation is that Everton got back three-and-a-half times their £800,000 investment of barely 12 months earlier on their star man. Some four years after Richarlison arrived from Watford for £35million rising to £50million, whatever the breakdown of the £60million package agreed with Tottenham Hotspur (the Hornets are also understood to be entitled to a 10% cut), the Blues' profit percentage is much smaller.
Despite Richarlison’s plea to “stay happy” – the two clubs struck a deal just hours later with Everton chairman Bill Kenwright having been spotted having dinner with his Spurs counterpart Daniel Levy at Mayfair restaurant Scott’s a couple of days earlier – in many ways his exit feels considerably more painful than Lineker’s. As much as the England international maintains: “I still have an affinity towards Everton,” he was never the darling of the Gwladys Street in the manner of ‘Richy’ during his short spell on Merseyside.
Without Lineker, the Blues shared the goals out in 1986/87 and reclaimed the League Championship against all the odds as they suffered a chronic injury crisis. The current Everton team could also struggle to identify a like-for-like replacement but as they look to revamp an under-achieving squad who finished 16th last season with the joint lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history, despite it being widely-reported that they had the biggest wage bill in the Premier League outside of the ‘Big Six’, manager Frank Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell have a more daunting challenge on their hands.
An instant hit with Evertonians from the day he bagged a brace on his debut in a 2-2 draw at newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers back in August 2018, Richarlison had a special affinity with Blues from the start. There were early moments of petulance as displayed with his sending off at Bournemouth later that month for sticking his head in on Adam Smith but fans embraced the spiky side of his game.
Here was a foreign import, all the way from Nova Venecia in Espirito Santo, Brazil, some 5,500 miles away, who played with the kind of passion that those who backed him from the stands could appreciate, a footballer who regardless of the vagaries of form, would always give his all for the royal blue jersey. Despite the bizarre claims from Paul Merson that Richarlison’s move had “spoiled the transfer window” he quickly proved his worth and was called up to the Brazil national team for the first time and has remained a regular ever since.
Finishing joint top scorer in his first season with 13 goals and helping Everton to finish eighth – a position they are subsequently yet to better – Richarlison agreed a new four-and-a-half-year deal with the club on December 3, 2019, but Marco Silva (who was also his manager at Watford and described by the player as being like a “father figure” to him) was sacked just 48 hours later. With Carlo Ancelotti taking the reins at Goodison, Richarlison would equal his Premier League goals tally of the previous season but there would be tougher times ahead.
It was probably no coincidence that a player like Richarlison who wears his heart on his sleeve and feeds off the emotion from the stands struggled in the ‘lockdown’ 2020/21 season that was contested mostly behind closed doors in largely empty stadia, scoring just seven times. The campaign did bring a couple of memorable Merseyside Derby moments for him though, in extremely contrasting fashion.
Richarlison saw red for hacking down Thiago in a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park in October 2020 – a challenge that was arguably worse than the much-maligned one Jordan Pickford made on Virgil van Dijk earlier in the same game – but the following February his third-minute goal put Everton on their way to a 2-0 victory for what was their first success at Anfield since 1999. Returning to a hero’s welcome from his team-mates at Finch Farm last summer with an Olympic gold medal around his neck after finishing top scorer in the Tokyo Games, the 2021/22 season brought plenty of memorable moments for the player despite the Blues’ struggles.
He netted the crucial equaliser in the 3-1 comeback win over Southampton on the opening day and returning from injury in October, he came off the bench to put Everton 2-1 up against former club Watford although the late collapse and 5-2 loss signalled the beginning of the end for Rafael Benitez as fortunes unravelled quickly and spectacularly for the former Liverpool manager. A 2-1 victory against Arsenal in December proved to be the solitary three points picked up by the Spaniard in his final 13 games in charge but it was also a night in which Richarlison displayed his personal determination, having two goals disallowed before finally equalising 10 minutes from the end.
It was again coming off the bench after another spell on the sidelines that he scored his next goal – a spectacular overhead scissor-kick at Carrow Road – in what proved to be Benitez’s final match as Everton were beaten 2-1 by rock-bottom Norwich City. Although Richarlison started the Lampard era brightly by getting a goal in the 4-1 FA Cup romp against Brentford, he would subsequently draw a blank for the next two months as the Blues teetered with relegation.
Ironically it was in a traumatic 3-2 defeat at Burnley on April 6, a fixture rearranged from Boxing Day, that Richarlison returned to the scoresheet and while both of his goals came from the penalty spot, he produced one of his most dominant displays of the season to no avail as Everton threw away their half-time lead and left themselves in serious peril of facing the drop for the first time in 71 years. But cometh the hour and cometh the man and just when the Blues needed him the most, Richarlison kept his scoring boots on.
There was the last-minute equaliser at home to Leicester City on April 20, the hugely uplifting winner against Chelsea on May 1, when the home crowd went the extra mile to roar their team to a vital victory and the day which produced the iconic image of Richarlison celebrating his goal while holding a smoking blue flare that had been thrown onto the Goodison turf. A penalty against Brentford put Everton 2-1 up a fortnight later – a result that would have saved them – but after another 3-2 loss it would all come down to the visit of Crystal Palace.
On what looks like being Richarlison’s last night in a blue shirt, he netted Lampard’s side’s equaliser in front of the Gwladys Street then celebrated prostrate on the edge of the pitch when Dominic Calvert-Lewin headed in the winner. The Brazilian was in the thick of relieved scenes in the home dressing room after the final whistle while another young fan at Goodison that evening was pictured holding a sign that read: “Richarlison: My Dad is a Red. Will you adopt me? If not, can I have your shirt please?”
In reality, Richarlison was more like an adopted Scouser himself. It’s such a shame that his time at the club coincided with a downturn in fortunes. As former Everton player and lifelong Blue Michael Ball pointed out in his ECHO column earlier this month, here was a supremely-gifted footballer who must have had ambitions of leading the team into Europe or perhaps even winning a trophy during his time on Merseyside and in some ways it was surprising that he stayed so long.
In that respect, Richarlison, loved by his own fans and misunderstood by so many rivals, was failed by some of his Blues team-mates on the pitch and Goodison Park’s power brokers in their inability to build a competitive team around him. The trick now is for Everton to be canny enough with their reinvestment into the squad of the Brazilian’s transfer fee to ensure subsequent club icons don’t suffer a similar fate.
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