Exiled striker Richarlison posted training videos on Instagram hours after Tottenham Hotspur suffered a 3-2 Premier League defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday.
The 29-year-old Brazilian forward was set to depart the north London club during the summer transfer window, but after a move failed to materialise, he has been left out of Tottenham's first-team squad by head coach Roberto De Zerbi.
Richarlison, who joined Tottenham Hotspur from Everton for £60million in 2022, was Spurs' top scorer last season with 11 Premier League goals. However, his future in north London has become increasingly uncertain after being frozen out of matchday squads for both domestic league and cup competitions.
Within hours of Tottenham's 3-2 home defeat to Villa on Saturday, Richarlison took to social media to publish footage of himself undertaking solitary workouts. The first video showed him conducting training drills, accompanied by the caption: "The focus remains."
A second video posted shortly afterwards captured the forward undergoing sprint training. Richarlison captioned that post: "35.4km/h - I broke my record."
Social media posts and transfer saga
Saturday's videos were the latest in a series of social media messages from the forward regarding his exclusion. On Tuesday, Richarlison shared a screenshot of a social media post discussing his omission from the squad, adding the caption "Why?" alongside a tearful sad-faced emoji.
The social media posts follow a turbulent transfer window during which two potential moves away from Tottenham broke down. Richarlison had been in talks over a proposed transfer to Brazilian outfit Vasco da Gama, but negotiations with the Rio de Janeiro-based club fell through last week.
That collapse followed a failed deadline-day move to Everton. Tottenham had agreed a proposed £35million fee to sell the striker back to the Merseyside club, where he had played prior to his move to Spurs, but the transfer fell through when Richarlison failed to agree personal terms with Everton.
According to BBC Sport, the striker was subsequently excluded from Spurs' Premier League squad following a dispute between the player and the club regarding the remaining nine months of his contract.
Richarlison remains in north London and continues to train alongside De Zerbi's squad, although he is left out whenever the group carries out tactical work in preparation for matches.
Roberto De Zerbi response and squad exclusion
Tottenham head coach Roberto De Zerbi has stood firm on his decision to leave Richarlison out of the team, addressing the forward's situation during a press conference on Monday.
"At the start of this season, I spoke to him many times to convince him to stay and he didn't want to," De Zerbi said. "I can't go every day to pray for him to stay."
The Italian manager explained that he had tried to offer the player a new deal before negotiations broke down.
"What I have done at the beginning of this season has been to speak with him and to propose an extension of the contract. If he said, 'no thank you,' I finished my job," De Zerbi said. "I know what happened in the last 45 days. It's not right if I explained. It's not my behaviour. The relationship, the problem is between the player and the club."
Richarlison's exile has seen him miss every top-flight matchday squad since Tottenham's opening-day defeat to Brentford. He was also left out of De Zerbi's squad earlier this week when Spurs travelled to Anfield and suffered an away defeat against Liverpool in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
Tottenham goal struggles and season form
The decision to exclude last season's top scorer comes amid a difficult start to the campaign for Tottenham, characterized by a distinct lack of goalscoring threat across their opening matches.
Spurs had failed to score in the Premier League this season until Saturday's fixture against Aston Villa, when Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke finally found the net to score Tottenham's first two league goals of the campaign.
However, the strikes from Gallagher and Van Hecke arrived too late to alter the outcome of the match, as Villa held on to hand Tottenham a 3-2 defeat.
With the transfer window now closed and a move to Vasco da Gama off the table, Richarlison remains at Tottenham with nine months remaining on his contract, while De Zerbi's side attempt to recover from their poor start to the Premier League season.
