What a waste of money that Richarlison was eh

Everton’s signing of Richarlison in the summer from Watford for a fee that could rise to £50million produced widespread disgust and levity among pundits and fans across the country.

Apparently, it is okay for other teams to splash large amounts of cash on players, but when Everton are doing it it’s suddenly wrong. According to Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson ‘Everton broke the transfer market’ with the signing of the Brazilian international.

Oh dear Merse

I have to admit I like Merse usually. He is like a clown at times, failing to pronounce foreign players names correctly and generally being daft on Soccer Saturday. However, Richarlison’s performances for the Blues of late are making him look very silly indeed.

Richarlison scored a brace against Brighton on Saturday in a 3-1 victory at Goodison Park. The win means that Everton have won four of their last five top-flight games. However, more importantly for the narrative of this article, Richarlison has now scored six times in just eight and a bit league appearances for the Toffees.

His goal tally is already higher this season than for the whole of last season at Watford. The lull in the second half of last season was likely due to the fact he was knackered from playing constantly for 18 months.

To put Richarlison’s start in context, only Eden Hazard, Sergio Aguero and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have a better minute per goal ratio than Richarlison in the top-flight this season.

Has so much potential

Richarlison’s potential was obvious to anybody who watched him play for Watford in those early games last season. He looked raw, but he also seemed to have the core attributes of a potentially very good player. The youngster was quick, strong and could take on players. However, it is easy to forget that the Brazilian is still only 21 of age. He only turned 21 towards the end of the season, so he was very young while at Watford.

Yet that did not stop people criticising the youngster for his performances. Those critics look to have gone quiet now. Richarlison’s really starting to show his potential at Everton under Marco Silva, who originally brought him to England.

The youngster is looking so confident and vibrant in a blue shirt. Every time he gets the ball, you get excited and expect him to do great things. A lot of the time, he does, and he will only get better with the right coaching and experience.

The former-Watford star has already made an impressive start to life in a Brazil shirt too. Unfortunately for the Blues, if Richarlison carries on performing the way he is then it will just be a matter of time before one of Europe’s super clubs coming knocking with a wad of cash, as for me he has that much potential.

In his current form, I doubt he will be going for anywhere near the measly potential fee of £50million that Everton paid for him.

Everton looking at the top six

Everton fans are desperate to get back amongst the big boys. The club are arguably the best positioned outside the usual top six to gatecrash the party. The Blues now have the right financial backing and seemingly a man with a plan in charge in Marco Silva.

A top-six finish would probably have been something that most Evertonian’s had half an eye on at the start of the season, with Everton are currently odds of 9/1 to achieve a top six finish.

However, it will be difficult for the Merseysiders to achieve, as one of the teams that finished in the top six would have to drop out, which looks highly unlikely at the minute.

For now, Everton and Richarlison are doing very nicely. I hope that the Blues break the transfer window again in January, as it seemed to have worked pretty well for them in the summer window.

Can Richarlison help Everton to a top six finish this season?