Richarlison Omitted from Tottenham's Premier League Squad

Tottenham’s Premier League squad dropped on Monday with one name missing in bold: Richarlison.

The club’s top scorer last season, 11 goals in 32 league games, has been left on the outside looking in. No squad number, no late reprieve. Just a clean cut from the official list and a Brazil international suddenly staring at a season in limbo.

What makes it even starker is who did make the list. Injured talents like Simons and Odobert are in. Richarlison is not. For a 29-year-old who led the line on the opening day at Brentford, the fall has been brutal and very public.

De Zerbi draws a line

Roberto De Zerbi didn’t try to dress it up. He also didn’t pretend the final call was his.

“It was not my decision. It is the normal decision,” the Tottenham head coach said, pushing the administrative side firmly upstairs. But he was crystal clear about how the relationship unravelled. “I think Richarlison, he decided everything alone. He spoke with me at the beginning of the pre-season and told me his idea and desire was to leave.”

That conversation set the tone for the summer. Once the forward made it known he wanted out, Spurs moved on. “At the end we go to bring another striker in,” De Zerbi explained, linking Richarlison’s stance directly to the club’s recruitment drive. “Like I said at the beginning of the pre-season, I want to keep the players, just the players that want to stay and be proud and with the right passion to stay here.”

The message was simple: if your heart’s not in it, you’re not in the squad.

Club call, coach’s principle

De Zerbi repeatedly underlined that the technical act of omitting Richarlison from the Premier League list belonged to the hierarchy, not the dugout.

“Then for everything and other problems, it is not my business and not my job. It is the responsibility of the club,” he said. “I can’t say nothing because I didn’t decide anything. The message of Richarlison from the beginning of the season has been very clear. I accepted that and for me there is nothing to say.”

No row hinted at. No last-minute bust-up. Just a player who wanted to go, and a club that eventually built a squad as if he already had.

The sporting logic is clear enough. Omar Marmoush has arrived from Manchester City. Mykhailo Mudryk has come in on loan from Chelsea. Savio, also from City, adds another attacking option. With every new forward through the door, Richarlison slid further down the pecking order until there was no place left at all.

Only the hungry stay

If there was any doubt about De Zerbi’s broader philosophy, he removed it with a blunt, almost ruthless clarity.

“If you don’t want to stay here, I don’t want to keep talking in the press conference. Go out – you have the freedom to go out,” he said. “If you don’t want to stay, why do we have to keep you on the list? Why do you have to stay?”

This is not a coach fighting to rehabilitate a disillusioned star. It is a coach drawing a hard boundary.

“I’m not Vinai, I’m not the sporting director, I am the coach,” De Zerbi added. “And I would like to work with the people hungry if they don’t play but happy to stay in this club.”

For Richarlison, that hunger is now being questioned not in whispers but in the official paperwork of the Premier League. For Tottenham, the message is equally stark: the badge comes before the name, even when that name was top of last season’s scoring charts.

The window has closed, the list is locked, and a once-central figure is now on the outside. Where does he go from here?