Richarlison’s return to Finch Farm to bid an emotional farewell to his former colleagues tugged on the heartstrings, not only because the depth of feeling was etched across the Brazilian’s face but it made a refreshing change to see an Everton hero for once departing on good terms. The 25-year-old was pictured shaking hands with manager Frank Lampard and fellow South American Yerry Mina while there was also a shot of him with his arms around kit manager Jimmy Martin with red eyes like he’d been crying.
We’d expect nothing less from Richarlison, though, a player who has always worn his heart on his sleeve and whose numerous acts of generosity towards and enthusiastic interactions with the fanbase endeared him to Evertonians, who shared his passion for the game. The player who dubbed himself ‘Pombo’ (Portuguese for pigeon) seemed to have something of a knack for rubbing opponents up the wrong way, especially rival fans, so it will be curious to see how he is treated by his once adoring public in Walton now that he has flown from the Goodison Park nest.
On returning for his second spell in charge in 1990, the Blues’ most-successful manager Howard Kendall remarked that while his previous post at Manchester City was “a love affair”, Everton was like “a marriage”. At least after leaving as a player to go to Birmingham City in 1974, Kendall was able to return to the club (on no fewer than three separate occasions) but too often when the once darlings of the Gwladys Street have departed in the modern era, a poisonous jilted ex-style relationship has developed.
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Goodison Park might be affectionately known as ‘The Grand Old Lady’ but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and when riled the ground is often more like a feisty battle axe than sweet grandmother. On many occasions in recent years, both Everton stars and fans have struggled to accomplish a mutually dignified parting of the ways.
The likes of Ross Barkley, John Stones, Marouane Fellaini, Francis Jeffers and Wayne Rooney have all endured varying degrees of rough rides from Everton fans after their exits, with the latter’s Goodison returns particularly venomous in the early years after his 2004 sale to Manchester United. While both parties have long since kissed and made up through a gradual rehabilitation process of Rooney attending the 2009 FA Cup final ‘as a fan’, his appearance back in Blue for Duncan Ferguson’s testimonial, his own subsequent United testimonial against Everton at Old Trafford, and then eventual return to his boyhood club for a second stint, the home-grown hero from Croxteth is far from alone in this respect.
Joleon Lescott was particularly derided because he had the temerity to join a team who had finished below Everton in the table the previous season, but given that he went on to lift two Premier League titles and an FA Cup with Manchester City, he will consider his choice to quit Goodison as ultimately being vindicated. Mikel Arteta, the man who Blues proclaimed as “the best little Spaniard we know”, seemed somewhat immune to such abuse after his move Arsenal, but there were flashpoints after some badge-kissing antics from him in an FA Cup quarter-final at the Emirates and an Evertonian mocking him in a selfie attempt at Lime Street station after the midfielder had netted an own goal at Goodison in a 3-0 defeat.
And then we come to Romelu Lukaku, still the most expensive sale in Everton’s history some five years on from his £75million transfer to Manchester United in 2017. He was far more consistent than Goodison icon Ferguson – who quit his position as Lampard’s assistant this week to pursue his own managerial opportunities – both in terms of finding the net on a regular basis and simply being available to play, but somehow these days he is considered something of pariah by many Evertonians.
Of course it will be pointed out that the Belgian international did not show due respect to his employers and fanbase during his time on Merseyside and loose talk of potential moves away often seemed to come as natural to him as a clinical finish. But did it really have to come to this? Perhaps shocked by the level of animosity shown to him from the away end at Old Trafford when facing Everton for the first time since his departure in 2017, Lukaku appeared to become hell-bent on scoring against them and when he did, he reacted with a cheeky cupped-ear celebration.
His online thank you to Blues fans penned at the time of his move was in time duly deleted and when finally returning to Goodison in April 2019 – he missed the previous season's corresponding fixture through injury – Lukaku was spotted trying to ‘shush’ the Gwladys Street as some taunted him with cries of “fatty, what's the score” in the closing stages of a 4-0 victory for Marco Silva's side.
Despite being a highly-intelligent polyglot fluent in half a dozen languages – perhaps that’s part of the problem, he’s always chatting to someone about something – the now 29-year-old seems to have a penchant for rocking the boat wherever he goes and he’ll be spared any Everton visits next season after being loaned back to Internazionale just 12 months after re-signing for his boyhood favourites Chelsea in a club record £97.5million move. The actions of Richarlison, whose £60million sale to Tottenham Hotspur should help Lampard to rebuild Everton’s squad, hopefully offers a more progressive example, though.
Professional club football has always been about transfers from the very start well over a century ago. As much as fans become emotionally attached to their favourites – as displayed in the recent phenomenon of parents posting videos of their crying Evertonian children to Richarlison – players are only ever ephemeral idols in what is ultimately a short-lived profession with an extremely restricted shelf life at the top.
If a player is struggling then his club will try and ship him out and if he does well then there's every chance that he’ll be coveted by a team who is more successful – or one who can offer him more money. While right now they’re carefully having to adhere to Financial Fair Play restrictions and playing catch up behind the Premier League’s ‘big six’ – along with most of the division after last season’s disgustingly close flirtation with relegation – for large swathes of Everton's history, the club once known as the Mersey Millionaires were considered footballing aristocrats who either bought themselves out of trouble or splashed the cash to enable them to compete for top honours.
Kendall’s great teams of the mid-1980s contained the likes of Adrian Heath (Stoke City) and Gary Lineker (Leicester City) both plucked from their local clubs while the current side has similar figures in the likes of Jordan Pickford (Sunderland) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Sheffield United). As frustrated as their fans will have been, they didn’t become hate figures among followers of their previous employers.
But this isn’t a hatchet job on the long-suffering supporters, though, who are always the ones who get hurt – browbeaten Blues, fresh from the battle against the drop are now having to deal with the uncertainty over the club’s ownership. Many of those aforementioned Everton alumni need to look at how they went about conducting their departures and the subsequent behaviour they have shown when moving on.
In contrast, Alan Ball was still 26 years old and at the peak of his powers when he was sold to Arsenal in December 1971 yet decades later he would passionately declare: “Once Everton has touched you, nothing will be the same.” Perhaps a big part of the problem is that many players don’t quite appreciate what a good thing they’ve got going on at Goodison until it’s gone? Now that might be the reason behind Richarlison shedding a few tears?
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