Darren Bent has told Richarlison to ‘keep his mouth quiet’ after he fired shots at Antonio Conte after Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League exit to AC Milan on Wednesday night.
Tottenham’s club-record signing came off the bench during the second-leg encounter, but he was seemingly unhappy with Conte because he didn’t start.
It was a night to forget for everyone associated with the club because they couldn’t even lay a glove on the Italian giants in front of their home crowd.
Tottenham’s failure to score over both legs, their style of play and getting knocked out of every competition this season has resulted in Conte coming under serious fire.
When Cristian Romero was sent off for a second yellow card with around 15 minutes left, Conte didn’t help matters by subbing off Dejan Kulusevski, it was the Italian’s Nuno Espirito Santo and Lucas Moura moment.
Either way, with Spurs producing another trophyless season and now facing the possibility of finishing outside of the top four, their former striker shared his thoughts, as he told talkSPORT (09/03/23).
“When you look at his (Conte’s) body language last night,” said Bent. “I find it difficult to criticise it last night, simply because he has come back from the illness that he had. You can’t then go too OTT from his body language last night.
“But, what I will say is, not that he didn’t want to stay at Spurs, but he hasn’t signed the contract. Daniel Levy was going to back him if you sign the contract. The fact that he hasn’t, then I always felt that he opted out a while ago. Before he got ill and all that. I honestly believe he checked out a while ago.
“I don’t get it (taking off Kulusevski at the end) when you need a goal. To be fair, Richarlison come out and said it, which I don’t think was the right thing to do when he hasn’t scored one goal all year, so, he needs to keep his mouth quiet.”
RICHARLISON SHOULD LOOK IN THE MIRROR
The £90k-a-week star (Spotrac) hasn’t had much to shout about ever since he decided to swap Everton for Tottenham in the summer.
He has only produced two goals, both coming in the Champions League, and only three assists in 17 Premier League matches.
Yes, he can make the argument that Son Heung-min’s form has been off-the-radar and, as a result, he should have earned more consistent starts.
But, as the Brazil star showcased against Sheffield United in the FA Cup, when your shots at goal are nearly ending up as throw-ins, then you can’t really run your mouth.
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