Richarlison's Transfer Collapse: Tottenham Stalemate
Richarlison’s proposed return to Brazil has collapsed, leaving the forward stuck in limbo at Tottenham and expected to stay in north London until January.
The move to boyhood club Vasco da Gama had looked like a late escape route. Vasco agreed a fee with Spurs on Friday, one of the last viable options on the table after transfer windows in Turkey and Saudi Arabia closed last week. But the deal has fallen apart after Richarlison failed to agree personal terms, the Press Association understands.
So he stays. But he cannot play.
Tottenham had already made their stance brutally clear. Before the English transfer window shut on September 1, the club informed the Brazil international he was not part of their first-team plans for this season. That was underlined when he was left out of Spurs’ 25-man Premier League squad last week.
A return to Everton, where he made his name in England, was explored but never completed before deadline day. Once that door closed, the options shrank quickly. Spurs have already used all six of their overseas loan slots, which meant any late move needed to be a permanent deal. Vasco stepped in, talks advanced, but the agreement never reached the finish line.
With the Brazilian transfer window due to close on Saturday, Richarlison is now expected to remain at Tottenham for the first half of the campaign, unable to feature in the league and searching for a way out that no longer exists until January at the earliest.
The saga has played out against the backdrop of a strained relationship with head coach Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian started Richarlison in the league opener at Brentford on August 22, but his tone shifted sharply once the forward was omitted from the Premier League squad.
Last Friday, De Zerbi was blunt: Richarlison, he said, had "decided everything alone".
Asked again for an update in his latest press conference, De Zerbi distanced himself from the mechanics of the fallout.
"I don't know," he said. "It's not my job. What I can say is I know very well what the club has done for Richarlison and I know very well what Richarlison has done for the club in the last month, two months.
"I know, the club knows, he knows, his agent knows. Everyone knows better than you."
Behind the scenes, Richarlison has been exploring whether the final nine months of his contract could be terminated, according to reports this week. For now, that remains unresolved. He is tied to a club where he cannot play in the league and where the coach openly laments losing a player from his list, while also hinting that the forward’s own behaviour over the last 45 days shaped the outcome.
The 29-year-old joined Tottenham from Everton in 2022 and scored 11 Premier League goals last season, a crucial contribution in keeping the club away from a relegation fight. That context is not lost on De Zerbi, who spoke with a mixture of regret and steel.
"I'm sorry because I have one player less on the list," he said. "Richarlison is a good guy, a very good guy. I spoke with him a lot of times and I spent time to convince him to stay, but if you ask me, I know the truth.
"I know what happened in the last month, the last 45 days and it's clear, but I'm not frustrated.
"If I had decided myself to leave him outside of the squad, I would have regrets, but the decision has not even been taken by the club. It has been a consequence of what I told you already that he has decided by his own.
"I'm sorry because it could be different. Even the end of the story, but a different way, I think.
"It could have been better, or it was much better Richarlison inside of the list, Richarlison happy to stay, maybe to extend his contract, because he is still an important player.
"He was important last season, we can't forget, but we can't forget also the last 45 days."
So Richarlison remains at Spurs: not in the squad, not in the manager’s plans, and not back home in Brazil. The next move is his – but he has to wait until the next window to make it.
