Lampard hit gold selling frustrating Everton gem who's now worth £35m less

Everton’s appointment of David Moyes has been nothing short of a masterstroke. Heading towards a relegation dogfight in their final season playing at Goodison Park, Sean Dyche was finally sacked at the beginning of January.

The Scot’s arrival has coincided with the club’s best run of form this season, lifting them from battling it out with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town, to going 10 points clear of 17th and seemingly on course to retain their top-flight status.

The Everton faithful will just be glad they have a manager who knows the club inside out and has a chance of returning them to the top half of the table, like Moyes did in all but two of his 11 seasons in charge during his first spell on Merseyside.

This recent run of form makes a massive change from the mismanagement endured under Dyche and his predecessor, Frank Lampard.

Lampard’s spell in particular was dreadful, winning just 12 of his 44 matches in charge during a year-long stint at the club.

His transfer business was the only impressive aspect of Lampard’s reign, bringing in several high-quality players to the club in the summer of 2022.

Everton’s transfer record under Frank Lampard

Although the Merseyside outfit won just three Premier League matches under Lampard before he was sacked in January 2023, the former Chelsea midfielder made a few solid signings in the transfer window a few months prior.

James Tarkowski was signed on a free transfer following the expiration of his Burnley contract, adding some solidity to the heart of the defence.

Elsewhere, Amadou Onana was signed from Lille, despite attracting attention from plenty of other clubs, while Dwight McNeil was brought in from Burnley and James Garner signed from Manchester United.

Given the quality of these transfers, it was surprising to see the club struggling during the first few months of 2022/23. They were missing the goalscoring threat of Richarlison, who had left Everton to join Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth around £60m – an excellent piece of business conducted by Lampard.

This deal now looks even better considering his recent form for Spurs, but at the time, losing the Brazilian was a major blow for the Toffees.

Richarlison’s Everton statistics

The Brazilian forward had impressed during his sole season at Watford, scoring five Premier League goals while chipping in with four assists.

This led to a move to Everton, who paid out the lavish sum of £50m to bring him to the club, with then-manager Marco Silva having managed him at Vicarage Road and succeeded Sam Allardyce as the new Toffees boss.

“Richarlison is a good player who will make our team and our squad more competitive,” said Silva upon his arrival. “The player himself is fast, strong, very good technically and he can play in three positions across the frontline. He can also score goals.”

This he did. Across his first season with the Toffees, Richarlison scored 14 from 38 appearances in all competitions, following this up with 15 the following season.

The final two seasons of his Everton spell saw the player net only 13 and 11 goals respectively, and when the bid of £60m came in from Spurs, it was obviously too good to turn down for Lampard.

This meant the club had secured a profit on the player, striking when the iron was hot in order to maximise their total income from selling the Brazilian.

Fast-forward two and a half years later, this fee is beginning to look like one of the best deals done in the club’s recent history.

Richarlison has struggled at Spurs

The 27-year-old managed to score just three goals for Spurs during his debut season in north London – hardly the return expected considering the massive financial outlay.

The 2023/24 campaign was better, as Richarlison scored 12 times and recorded four assists for Spurs in all competitions. However, former Rangers striker Ally McCoist dubbed the player as “very frustrating” to watch after a poor performance against Fulham last term.

Injury issues have plagued him throughout the current campaign, as the former Watford man has struck just three goals for the club, starting only six times in the process.

When compared to his positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues in the last 365 days, Richarlison ranks in the lowest 50% for shot-creating actions (2.17) per 90, along with ranking in the bottom 98% for successful take-ons per 90 (0.14), demonstrating that he is failing to truly live up to his talents for Spurs.

Of course, injuries have not helped his cause, but even when fit, his displays have been lacklustre to say the least.

As such, this has seen his market value drop considerably since he arrived at the club back in the summer of 2022.

Richarlison’s market valuation at Spurs

According to Transfermarkt, the Brazilian is now worth €30m (£25m) at the time of writing, which sums up how poor he has been recently.

In just two and a half years, Richarlison is worth £35m less than what he signed for, indicating that the north London side overspent in bringing him to the club.

18 goals across 80 appearances is a poor record, especially for someone as talented as the former Everton striker, who has shown flashes of genius on occasion.

This works out as £3.3m per goal during his spell at Spurs, and unless he improves rapidly over the coming months, this valuation is only going to continue drifting in the wrong direction.

Lampard had plenty of faults during his 12-month spell in charge of Everton, but selling the centre-forward for £60m certainly isn’t one of them.

Moyes will be looking to add some funds to his transfer kitty ahead of next season. Could he perhaps follow in Lampard’s footsteps by securing a major profit on someone who won’t improve elsewhere? Only time will tell.