Everton will land Rich kid
RICHARLISON is set to complete his £40m move to Everton in the next 24 hours.
The Brazil winger had a medical on Merseyside yesterday after the Toffees agreed a deal with Watford over the weekend.
Richarlison, 21, will become Marco Silva’s first signing at the club as he follows his old boss from Vicarage Road.
The Hornets paid Brazilian side Fluminense £11.5m for the attacking midfielder last summer, when Silva was still in charge.
Now he has raided his former club, with Watford making a massive profit.
Richarlison bagged four goals and five assists during his debut campaign – all before November.
The Brazilian’s form dipped alarmingly when Silva was sacked by Watford in January.
But the new Everton boss believes he can get Richarlison back to his best at Goodison Park, with the tricky star providing some much-needed creativity for the Toffees.
Everton’s new director of football, Marcel Brands, recommended Richarlison to PSV Eindhoven when he was in the same role at the Dutch club.
Everton will pay around £35m up front with the rest in add-ons. He is expected to sign a five-year deal and start training this week.
Everton’s record transfer will remain the £45m they spent to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson from Swansea 12 months ago.
They are still in talks with Watford over a financial deal to settle the dispute around Silva.
Their Premier League rivals were furious about Everton’s approach for their boss last October.
Watford blamed their downturn in results on Silva having his head turned by the Toffees before he was axed.
Everton are also trying to seal a £22m deal for France and Barcelona left-back Lucas Digne, while they also want to sign the Spanish club’s centre-back Yerry Mina. social media due to his continued blunders since his Champions League Final disaster, where he cost his side two goals in a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid.
His dodgy display was blamed on concussion.
But he was at fault again for Borussia Dortmund’s third goal in Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat in the International Champions Cup on Sunday, when he parried Christian Pulisic’s shot straight to Jacob Bruun Larsen to score.
That followed another mistake against Tranmere earlier this month. On Instagram, Karius urged his critics to get over their hatred of him, saying: “To those who take joy in seeing other people fail or suffer, I feel for you.
“Whatever it is that’s happening in your life to hold this much anger and hate, I pray it passes and good things come to you.”
Karius got the backing of Iker Casillas, the former Real Madrid and Spain keeper, who called for an end to the online abuse.
“Will this attack on Loris Karius ever end?” he wrote on social media.
“Leave the kid alone! He’s also a person!”
Liverpool are assessing the injury which forced defender Joel Matip to limp off against Dortmund.