Roberto De Zerbi says Richarlison’s future at Tottenham is still uncertain.
The Brazilian scored a late winner for Spurs in a 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Chelsea.
But with just a year left on the 29-year-old’s contract, he could walk away for free next summer.
De Zerbi is also keen on adding more attacking signings before the window shuts, but the Spurs boss has backed Richarlison to be an important player if he stays at the club.
“I don’t know, because I like him as a player, as a guy, it’s unbelievable the attitude and behaviour, but at the end we have to respect what he wants to do,” De Zerbi said on his future.
“And we know, every one of us knows what he wants to do, but for me he’s still an important player, because it’s not so easy to find another striker like Richarlison, because Richarlison scores goals and he knows the way.
“The new striker, we don’t know. The other striker, we don’t know. He scored 12 goals last season, not through luck, because he feels the way to score.”
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Quizzed further on whether Richarlison actually wants to leave, De Zerbi said: “I don’t know, I didn’t understand well, because sometimes he said to stay, sometimes he leaves. We have to speak anyway, there is not any problem, he’s a lovely guy.
“All of us love him, the team-mates, the club, the staff, because he works hard every day, seriously every day.”
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We seriously need to bring in some top quality up from. We are lacking right across the front line from left to right. For me, Tel, Richarlison, Solanke, Moore, Solomon, none of them are good enough, we really have to upgrade the complete front line if we are to do anything this season.