Marco Silva: Richarlison was headed to Ajax before I stepped in | OneFootball

Former Watford and Everton manager Marco Silva recently opened up to famed journalist Fabrizio Romano on many topics including how he hijacked Richarlison’s move to Ajax and brought him to Vicarage Road.

Silva explains how the Ajax deal was just as good as done before he personally pleaded with the Watford hierarchy to pony up £11.2m (€13m) to bring in the relatively inexperienced 20-year-old Brazilian from Fluminense.

“The negotiation started in the middle of the week so when I came back from Austria I called his agent, whom I already knew,” Silva began.

“He tells me: ‘I’m sorry Marco but Richarlison will fly to the Netherlands on Monday and sign with Ajax.’

“I immediately replied: ‘No, you have to stop everything. I want Richarlison at all costs at Watford.’ So I get Richarlison’s number, phone him and speak to him in Portuguese.

“He tells me: ‘I am joining Ajax’ and I said: ‘No, you are not, you are coming to Watford.’ I told him that I would support him with everything. I said that the Premier League is bigger than the Eredivisie.

“Richarlison sounded happy and then I had to convince the Watford owner to match Ajax’s offer and spend a lot of money on Richarlison, a very young Brazilian boy who had never played in Europe before.

“Together, though, we managed to stop Richarlison’s flight to the Netherlands and two days later he arrived at the Watford training ground.”

Of course, Richarlison would become an instant Premier League success and secured a mammoth £50m move to Everton to reunite with Silva the following season.