Richarlison's Future in Question as De Zerbi Faces Dilemma
In Sydney, with the cheers for a late preseason win over Chelsea still echoing, Roberto De Zerbi dropped a line that cut through the warm glow of victory.
Tottenham’s manager openly questioned whether Richarlison will even be at the club much longer.
The Brazil forward had just scored the winner in a 2-1 friendly, tapping home to settle a lively contest on tour. Thirty minutes later, De Zerbi was talking about him in the past tense.
“I don't know,” he admitted when asked if Richarlison would stay. “As a player, as a guy, he's unbelievable in his attitude and behaviour, but in the end, we have to respect what he wants to do.”
It was a striking confession. Richarlison, 29, is into the final year of his contract, with no talks reported over an extension. De Zerbi painted the picture of a player torn between two paths, sending conflicting messages about his future since the end of last season.
“Sometimes he says he wants to stay, sometimes he wants to leave,” De Zerbi said. “There is not any problem. He's a lovely guy.”
The uncertainty jars with the numbers. Richarlison hit 12 league goals last season, a return De Zerbi was quick to defend as no fluke.
“It's not so easy to find another striker as Richarlison,” he stressed. “Richarlison scores goals and he knows the way. The new striker, we don't know. The other striker, we don't know. He scored 12 goals last season — not lucky, because he feels the way to score goals.”
That line said everything about the manager’s dilemma. Lose him, and Tottenham gamble on an unknown. Keep him, and they risk drifting into a final-year saga with a player whose mind might already be wandering.
Yet there was no hint of frustration with the man himself. De Zerbi repeatedly circled back to Richarlison’s daily work, his standards, his popularity inside the club.
“He makes the club, the staff, because he works hard every day, seriously every day, and we can't say anything negative,” he said.
The goal in Sydney might prove symbolic: a match-winner from a striker whose long-term future no one at Spurs seems able to pin down.
Archie Gray handed the armband – and a message
If Richarlison’s story is about uncertainty, Archie Gray’s is the opposite.
While one senior forward edges toward a crossroads, a 20-year-old midfielder is being pushed to the front of the project. De Zerbi has given Gray the captain’s armband in every game of Tottenham’s tour of Australia, a bold move that has not gone unnoticed.
When asked to explain the decision, the Italian’s answer came with a grin: “I'm the coach, I decide.”
Behind the smile, there is a clear plan. De Zerbi sees the armband as a tool, not a trophy.
“I think this has been more important for Archie Gray than for Ben Davies,” he said. “Because it's like to give Archie something more as a confidence booster.”
De Zerbi has spoken before about Gray as both present and future, and he doubled down on that view in Sydney.
“Last season, I said he is the future of the club, as well as the present,” he reminded. “It's important for us because he can cover two, three positions on the pitch.”
Gray doesn’t relish one of those roles. He has made it clear right-back is not his favourite spot, yet De Zerbi used that reluctance to underline what he expects from his captain.
“He doesn't love too much to play in the right-back position,” De Zerbi said. “But I think with the captain, you have to think first of all for the group, for the team, for the club, then for yourself.”
That is the trade-off. Gray has agreed to stretch himself positionally; De Zerbi has rewarded him with responsibility.
“So it was something more to give him,” the coach added, “because he decided to give more to this club, even with his different position, even if he doesn't play in the best eleven.”
A young player wearing the armband on the other side of the world might look like a preseason quirk. Under De Zerbi, it feels more like a statement: this is the standard, and this is who will be asked to uphold it.
Mudryk’s return and an old bond rekindled
The night was not just about Tottenham.
On the Chelsea side, Mykhailo Mudryk’s return to the squad added another emotional thread. The winger’s appeal against a doping ban, which had kept him out of professional football since November 2024, was resolved on Friday, clearing his path back to the pitch.
For De Zerbi, it was personal. He coached Mudryk at Shakhtar Donetsk, helping launch him onto the European stage before both men headed to the Premier League. The bond clearly remains.
He described Mudryk as “my second son” and did not hide his delight at seeing him back.
“I'm very, very happy,” De Zerbi said. “A good guy, a top player, hopefully he can show what he suffered in the last two years in the next season. Maybe not against Tottenham, but he's a lovely guy and he's a very, very good player.”
So in one Sydney evening, De Zerbi watched his current match-winner step closer to the exit door, his chosen young leader grow into the armband, and an old protégé re-emerge from a long, enforced absence.
For Tottenham, the tour is meant to sharpen fitness and fine-tune ideas. Instead, it has also exposed the fault lines and foundations of the squad: a proven striker who might walk away, and a 20-year-old captain being built to carry what comes next.
