Richarlison: Watford to Everton for £50 Million?!

With Everton announcing the singing of Richarlison from Watford for £35 million which with added clauses will take the total to around £50 million; I sat here wondering… How?!

Born May 10th, 1997 (21 years old), Brazilian, Richarlison de Andrade signed for Watford from Fluminense in August 2017 for £11.2 million. Now with just 41 appearances and five Watford goals behind him, Marco Silva has signed the winger who follows the manager to Everton.

Any rational person would think okay so he had two years left on his contract, an okay performance in his first season in English football, he’s maybe gone for £15 million?

No, Marco Silva has managed to sell the Everton board a dream along with building ‘his’ Everton which slaps a £50 million price tag on the Brazilian. A record fee for The Toffees.

If Chelsea finally make their minds up and bid for Gonzalo Higuaín, Sky Sports reckons they’re looking at a £57 million bid. To put that into perspective this is a man with a 50.72 percent career scoring record. Richarlison currently sits on a 25 percent career scoring record. Yes, Higuain is a more experienced player but that’s why I’ve put this into something we can generalise: percentages.

If you try to generalise transfer fees, this is like saying that Richarlison is worth more than Thibaut Courtois as Real Madrid are hoping for a £35 million bid to be accepted by Chelsea. Surely Courtois will save more than five clear goals in a season?

But looking at Richarlisons stats more closely you’ll remember that he scored three goals in his first six starts for Watford, creating this hype and in turn a national team call-up. This form pretty much vanished once Silva had been stripped of his managerial role at Vicarage Road. So, how much of an influence did Silva have on the winger?

Now, as a Man Utd fan I’m not really bothered if Everton is wasting money but, in all honesty, I hope he regains that form as he clearly has chemistry with the manager and agrees with his tactics and playing style.

I like the young lad and if he’s used properly, he could cause some teams a real problem this season. I’ve put together a possible starting XI for The Toffees for the upcoming campaign.

This is how I see Richarlison fitting in. Part of a very quick, skillful wide partnership with Bolasie (hopefully he stays fit) coupled with the thoughtful and calculated play of Sigurdsson.

I saw a stat on Sky Sports which quoted that Richarlison won 43 percent of the 282 aerial duels he contested for last season. This could really become a key part of his play in the Everton XI I have pictured here. If you have him winning the headers, Tosun running onto the balls and then said Brazilian, Bolasie, and Sigurdsson attacking with him I can see this being a very fruitful source of goals for The Toffees.

I’m not sure about Schneiderlin’s involvement as I think this is an area Everton could strengthen but, I feel that Tom Davies could really show his worth this season and increase his price tag. After all with 43 appearances and two goals last season whilst playing in a more defensive role than Richarlison he’s surely worth at least £35 million right?

All of that aside it will be very interesting to see how Jordan Pickford gets on after his incredible World Cup. As a former goalkeeper myself who wasn’t the tallest and relied on agility and quick decision making I fully appreciate his playing style and mentality, but maybe that’s for another post.