Rafa Benitez insists the constraints of financial fair play will not force Everton to accept a mega-money offer for Richarlison in the coming days. Earlier this week, Goodison sources were adamant that the club would not entertain an offer for the Brazilian despite strong speculation linking Paris Saint Germain with interest. And Benitez, ahead of the trip to Brighton, Benitez says he is “99.99%” certain Richarlison will still be an Everton player by the close of the window on Tuesday night. The Everton boss says the 24-year-old is “happy” and though Benitez is too experienced to completely rule out Richarlison leaving he says it makes “no sense”.
Rafa Benitez said: “No, not really. We are working on the players that we want to be sure that we can get and the players that maybe we will not need. We are working on that. The main one, when people talk about speculation, is Richarlison. We are very happy with him. My idea is that 99.99 per cent, he will stay. I am happy with him, he is happy here and he wants to score goals. Obviously you never know what will happen in the future but 99.99 per cent – I will repeat myself again – he will stay and he will hopefully score [at Brighton]. The other players, we are working on, because the transfer window is still open.”
Everton trained on Friday afternoon before flying to Brighton and in a session on Thursday, Benitez spoke with Richarlison.
Rafa Benitez said: “I was talking with him yesterday. We had a 5-a-side, he was joking, he was scoring goals. This is a player that is happy to do well here and is happy to score goals. In his head, the only thing that I know he has is Brighton. In football, you never know. But this is one of the speculations that I can almost be sure has no sense.”
