Roberto De Zerbi blames Richarlison for his Tottenham exile and tells the Brazilian it's time to turn 'to another page' as wantaway star pushes for a move to Turkey

Roberto de Zerbi has told Richarlison his Tottenham exile is a problem entirely of his own making as he revealed the Brazilian rejected contract talks at the start of the summer.

Richarlison, top scorer for Spurs with 11 Premier League goals last season, cannot play in the competition after his omission from De Zerbi's official 25-man squad on Thursday.

He has been training alone, away from the first team as he waits to find out if a proposed move to Trabzonspor will materialise before the Turkish transfer deadline on Friday (at 10pm) or another move to an overseas market still open for transfer business.

'You don't know one important thing,' said De Zerbi ahead of Saturday's trip to Nottingham Forest. 'At the beginning of pre-season I spoke to Richarlison and asked him if he wanted to extend his contract because I was happy to keep him with us, and he didn't want to.

'So, Richarlison is a good player, yes. He was important last season, yes very important. He's a good guy, yes. But in the end, I have to stop myself putting pressure on the players if the players show me they want to leave.

'So, I'm sorry for him but we have to go to another page and work with Dominic Solanke and Omar Marmoush.'

Richarlison, a £60million signing from Everton in 2022, has one year remaining on his current contract with the option for another year.

De Zerbi confirmed Spurs did accept an offer for the 29-year-old, which is thought to be worth £35m from Everton as Spurs lined up a £65m deal for Iliman Ndiaye to move the other way.

'We did receive an offer and he didn't accept it,' said the Spurs boss. 'Richarlison decided everything. Not me, not the club. I didn't decide and I was not responsible to this situation.

'If one player says, 'I want to leave, I want to leave, I want to leave' you have to have an offer behind you otherwise what are you doing? The right offer for him I think arrived after the transfer market closed. I don't decide the negotiation or if one player has to leave or to stay. And I am sorry for him because he's a good guy and it's not right if one player doesn't play or can't play.'

Trabzonspor's interest only became clear on Wednesday but at the time of writing they had not met the asking price for the Brazilian.

After missing out on targets Cody Gakpo, who stayed at Liverpool, and Ndiaye, who joined Manchester City, Spurs signed Mykhailo Mudryk on loan from Chelsea.

'Not the last minute but the last days,' said De Zerbi when asked about the late swerve. 'In that moment, we needed one player on the left wing. We have just Mathys Tel and Mudryk. He wanted to come, he accepted because he has another couple of offers and it is a good solution.'

Mudryk is not fit to start but ready to play from the bench, and the Spurs boss who gave the Ukraine winger his big break at Shakhtar Donetsk before his £89m move to Chelsea hopes to rekindle his talent after two years out for a doping ban.

'I brought him from the Under 21s and put him in the first team,' said De Zerbi. 'I gave him the chance to play in the first XI against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu when he was 20 years old.

'It was his first season and a very emotional season, because we were building a great team and when the war started everything finished.

'Then from Shakhtar to Chelsea he paid a big price because different leagues, different countries, a different level of the club with a big, big responsibility because he knew the price Chelsea paid.

'But it's a normal process for a potential top player. Now I think he's 25, he's in the right moment of his career in a top club. It's the right moment for him to show what he can do.'