Troy Deeney believes Richarlison has lost the edge at Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur purchased Richarlison from Everton in a £60 million swoop in 2022. The Brazilian international was a hot product during his time at Goodison Park as well as with Watford before joining the Toffees, so Spurs’ investment in the player was seen as a fantastic move towards securing the future of their offensive department while they were managed by Antonio Conte.

Richarlison has far from lived up to the billing at Hotspur Way, however, if compared to the potential he was believed to have while at Everton. At one point in time, he had been linked with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid, so naturally, joining Tottenham was seen as a compromise by many footballing experts at the time of his switch to the north Londoners.

With that said, a familiar Premier League face in Troy Deeney believes Richarlison’s failure in fulfilling expectations has been down to hunger. He was quoted saying the following in the Premier League All Access Podcast.

“I look at Richarlison. That’s not the Richarlison I used to play with. He’s lost a fire, he’s lost an edge, he’s lost a desire to go run through somebody. I think, I do not know what that environment is, and we hear the word culture all the time being branded around, it is a bit of a buzzword, but something at Spurs is too nice. Whether it is the facilities, whether it is the actual fact that they are not used to winning or expected to win anything, but people go there and they just lose a level of that spite and nastiness that probably what Spurs brought them in for.”

Not many people know Richarlison as well as Deeney given that the Englishman has shared a dressing room with the South American when he was at a budding stage of his career. Moreover, the 36-year-old also spent a considerable amount of time in mentoring a fantastic talent and his assessment of how things have panned out could not have been any closer to the truth.

Apart from a very lavish £90,000 per week pay packet at Tottenham, there is little pressure at the club to deliver any silverware or fight for anything for him to fight for a meaningful goal. At Watford or Everton, there was at least the onus to survive relegation and that does cause some level of tension in the dressing room, though it is far different compared to a club that contends to win trophies.

More Tottenham Hotspur News:

• Tottenham in three-way transfer battle as Conte plans to sign Spurs target this summer
• Not Toney – Tottenham put off by €50m asking price for striker whose contract expires in less than 12 months
• Tottenham now in position to hijack Chelsea deal for Serie A ace

The fitness situation at Tottenham has also been unkind to Richarlison, which may be another massive factor in the player’s loss of motivation. His future is going to come under the scanner once again this summer and it will be interesting to see if the forward prefers staying at a competitive level in Europe should he leave the Lilywhites or whether he pursues a massive wage offer from the Middle East, from where he has earned admiration in the recent past.