Tottenham star Richarlison faces an awkward reunion with Michael Antonio when the north Londoners face West Ham on Thursday. Richarlison responded bitterly when Antonio and Newcastle striker Callum Wilson mocked his underwhelming goal record in his first season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Richarlison struggled during the first 12 months of his time at Spurs, scoring only three goals across all competitions. Just one of those strikes came in the Premier League and the Brazilian forward earned an unwanted reputation for jubilantly celebrating goals that were subsequently ruled out or counted for nothing.
On one of those occasions, the 26-year-old scored a dramatic last-gasp equaliser against Liverpool in April. He raced towards the away end at Anfield, took off his shirt and waved it over his head. Liverpool went straight up the other end to win the game through Diogo Jota.
Richarlison’s celebration was mocked by Antonio and Wilson on their The Players’ Channel podcast. Antonio hilariously pointed out that Richarlison had “scored four times [last] season”, joking that “three of the times he’s been offside, [so] he’s taken his top off four times”.
But the comment did not go down well with Richarlison, who responded to a social media post by saying: “How many goals do both have [at] the World Cup?”
The row continued for several more weeks, with Antonio cheekily claiming that he would no longer speak about Richarlison – but added that Spurs should sign a new striker.
“I am no longer commenting on Richarlison,” Antonio announced. “It’s got to the stage where I just feel like some people are a bit touchy, so I don’t want to touch nothing that are making people touchy.
“Obviously I’m not going to speak about the person who is in the position, I’m just going to say Tottenham need to sign a striker and I’ll leave it at that.”
Antonio claims that Brazilian West Ham team-mate Lucas Paqueta has relayed that Richarlison will not shake his hand when the two teams meet on Thursday.
“I’ve gone to Paqueta, obviously they play with each other (for Brazil),” Antonio, who could miss the game with a knee injury but will surely be present, said. He added: “I was like, ‘What’s wrong with your boy? It’s a bit of banter, I don’t understand why he’s taking it so personally’, to the stage where his manager has to talk.
“Lucas is like, ‘It’s just how he is Michy. I told him that’s how you are but he says ‘no, no no, when we play against them, I’m not going to shake his hand’.”
