Former Everton captain Kevin Campbell has urged his old club to be decisive this summer when dealing with Richarlison’s future.
Richarlison has been widely linked with a move away from Goodison Park with Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal all interested in the Brazilian international. In an ideal world, Frank Lampard would keep both Richarlison and fellow key attacking asset Dominic Calvert-Lewin and build around them as he looks to push the Toffees up the table.
However, there is an acceptance that one of their key men may need to be sold to help satisfy FFP regulations. Both players would ideally like to further their careers too and have admirers higher up the table.
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Everton are likely to demand more than £50m for Richarlison and Campbell believes they need to act swiftly when deciding what to do with the interest in him
“I think what they’ve got to do is they’ve got to be smart,” he told Goodison News.
“Because what you don’t want is to leave it to the last minute and then you can’t bring anybody in. That’s the difficult part. So, big boy pants on, if he’s going, name your price and then if anybody meets it great. If they don’t then you get as near to it as possible.
“It’s that simple because Everton need to do business early and get players integrated, and whatever they’re going to do they do. I think that’s a really important thing if it’s going to happen.”
Campbell believes that while it would be a huge blow for the Toffees to lose their talisman, they must maximise the transfer fee as Lampard and Director of Football Kevin Thelwell look to rejuvenate and reshape the Everton squad.
He said: “It is never an ideal situation to lose a key player but the Brazil international wants to make a step up, and after he performed so admirably in keeping the club in the Premier League many would reluctantly accept that.
“What is vital for Frank Lampard’s transfer window, and the Toffees’ finances more widely, is that decent value is received for him. If one of the interested clubs attempts to lowball them into accepting less because of the difficult circumstances around Goodison at the moment then that has to be dismissed, but it could be that holding out for a the absolute maximum return has more of a negative effect if it delays everything else the manager wants to do this summer.”
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