Spurs, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace are all linked with Richard Ríos - but is the high-risk midfielder really on the move?
If you spend too much time trawling through gossip columns – as all football journalists are compelled to do for their sins, which are many and varied – then you’ll probably know the name of Richard Ríos. You may well also be sick of hearing it.
The 25-year-old Colombia international has been linked with just about every team in the Premier League at some stage or another. Now, fresh off the back of an impressive group stage performance with Palmeiras at the Club World Cup, his agent seems to be diligently doing the rounds once again.
This week, Spanish newspaper AS cite Brazilian media sources in claiming that Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace are all interested in striking a deal for the midfielder. But should we trust this story any more than the dozens of others that came before it? And if he does eventually make it to the Premier League, will he be a success?
Richard Ríos links may be tiresome – but a European move is on the way
While Ríos’ performances in Brazil and with his national team have no doubt encouraged many teams to send scouts to monitor him, there are few signs that any of the dozen or so English teams linked with him have made a formal offer.
Partly, that’s because Palmeiras have been in no hurry to lose him. The biggest South American sides are still beholden to European money in the transfer market, but Palmeiras have made a mint over the past two years – between the sales of Endrick to Real Madrid and Estevão Willian, Luis Guilherme and Vitor Reis to their respective Premier League sides, they have struck deals worth up to £160m including add-ons. They are one side who don’t need to sell if they don’t want to.
As a result, it seems as though the asking price has been rather too rich for most clubs’ blood – or perhaps simply too hard to pin down. Sport Witness, commenting on the fresh glut of Ríos-centric rumours, note that alleged asking prices have fluctuated from £15m to £85m over the last couple of years. Ríos has become a “random price generator”, as they put it, and it doesn’t seem as though any serious negotiating has been possible.
So why would things be any different this time around? For starters, his hugely impressive performances in the Club World Cup, in which he made a major contribution to his team topping their group, have sparked some fresh interest and provided evidence that he can cut it at a higher level. More pertinent, however, may be his contract situation.
Ríos’ deal has one year left to run, with Palmeiras holding the option for another year. The ‘two years left’ mark is a crucial one for a player’s financial value – usually the last time that a selling club can extract full value for them. Palmeiras may be flush right now, but simple economics may encourage them to think about selling.
AS, noting that the Brazilian may not want to sell him regardless, claim that any transfer fee would need to be at least €25m (a little over £21m). Another figure off that random number generator, perhaps, but probably a sensible starting point. But will any of Spurs, Forest or Palace really make a bid?
The highs and lows of Richard Ríos as Spurs, Nottingham Forest & Crystal Palace eye bids
Given that Ríos’ representatives have, for the past two years, been working to ensure that the media links him with every club with two brass pennies to rub together, picking apart from the fact from the fiction is virtually impossible. Spurs, Forest and Palace might be the current connections, but the only way to guess whether he’s really on their shortlists is by working out whether his playing style lines up with any of their systems.
As it happens, he’s arguably a solid fit for all three, assuming that Spurs don’t deviate too far from the ideas of Ange Postecoglou after the Australian’s sacking. A dynamic midfielder who essentially acts as a box-to-box player who sticks to the right-hand channels, he should suit sides who want high-energy ball-winners who can progress the ball downfield at speed.
Although too aggressive in his positioning and playing style to be called a defensive midfielder, the high volume of turnovers he generates – more than five per match, on average, in his last Brazilian Série A season – is a key element of his appeal. Tall, strong and fast, Ríos uses his impressive physical traits to cover large swathes of the pitch, winning back possession and then getting it back to the final third as quickly as possible.
A confident ball-carrier who likes to take players on and get the ball downfield himself, Ríos really caught the eye during the 2023 season in Brazil, when he succeeded with nearly 75% of his attempts to beat a man one-on-one – that, unsurprisingly, was when the ceaseless rumours started.
Since then, however, he hasn’t been quite so effective with the ball at his feet. Since the start of the 2024 season, the stats sheet claims that he has tried to take on 75 players in Série A, but only beaten them 26 times in total. From a nearly 75% success rate, he is down to barely over a third.
He still generates plenty of chances for a central midfielder and his pace lets him get into dangerous positions between defence and midfield on the counter-attack, but his passing isn’t noted for being especially economical and he is rather boom or bust now when trying to dribble.
In short, Ríos is a powerhouse player who almost always tries to break the lines by himself and does so often enough that he creates plenty of dangerous moments, but doesn’t succeed as frequently as might be hoped – but at least, when he loses the ball, he has the pace and defensive acumen to get back, make amends, and try again.
At his best, he can dominate opposing midfielders and keep possession flowing upfield in immensely threatening fashion. At his worst, he can be incredibly frustrating and offers the ball back to the opposition with needless regularity. He would be a high-risk, but would still suit a team that value hard pressing and fast counter-attacks, and are prepared to gamble on a high volume of direct assaults on the opposing defence backed up by an assured belief in their ability to get back and regain possession quickly when moves break down.
That’s a fair description of all of the teams now linked with him, and perhaps that lends these newer stories a little bit of credence. If Thomas Frank wants to keep playing in Postecoglou’s hundred-mile-an-hour style at Spurs, then Ríos would fit the bill, while Palace make a degree of sense when you look at Ríos as a version of Adam Wharton that’s a ball carrier rather than an incisive passer.
Maybe Nottingham Forest’s midfield set-up is a little too disciplined for Ríos to be included easily, but there is some overlap with Elliot Anderson’s dynamic capacity to bring the ball downfield after forcing turnovers. If Nuno Espirito Santo feels like rolling some more dice next year, he could mesh nicely with their fast-paced attacking play.
Ríos is an entertaining, dangerous and gifted player who takes a lot of chances with the ball. It would take a relatively brave manager (or sporting director) to sign him, but these are teams who want to play direct, counter-attacking, pressing football – exactly the kind of teams who could stand to take such a chance on him. As for whether he finally makes his long-mooted move to the Premier League, however, only time will tell. But let’s hope he does, if only so the rumour mill can pause for breath.
Continue Reading