After going into last season with high hopes, Everton fans ended up utterly frustrated. Ronald Koeman, who had spent lavishly in the summer, was sacked in October with the team in the relegation zone. Sam Allardyce, who was brought in in his place, took the Toffees up the table but the style of football seen under his watch alienated those on the terraces. This time around, the Merseyside club are looking to get things back on track. Marco Silva, who they unsuccessfully tried to prize away from Watford as Koeman’s replacement before settling for Allardyce, has finally come in and is already shaping the team to his taste. One of the things that Everton most obviously lacked last term was direct, skilful wide men. At times they were playing three sluggish number 10s in advanced midfield positions and there was no pace or threat in behind the opposition defence. To remedy that, the Blues’ new Portuguese coach has turned to flying forward Richarlison. Silva knows the 21-year-old well, having signed him for Watford at the beginning of last season. And with a transfer fee that could rise to £50 million, he has shown enormous faith in the youngster’s potential. The two have an excellent relationship, and after his unveiling Richarlison said: “I think it’s going to be really important for me here, because I’ll be with Marco Silva again… [He] became a father to me at Watford.” There will be a lot of pressure on the Brazilian to perform given the outlay, and the move to a team that is looking to secure a European place is another huge step in a meteoric rise for a player who just five years ago had never even been at a professional club. Richarlison was brought up in a tiny rural town in the state of Espirito Santo, wedged between Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Bahia on Brazil’s Atlantic coast. From a family of modest means, he started off playing in local amateur leagues, known as Futebol de Varzea, following in the footsteps of his father, Antonio Carlos. In 2016, Antonio Carlos told newspaper Extra that: “We lived in the countryside, in the fields. I played in the team from Vila Pavao. There was a kids’ team there, and I used to coach them myself.”