Everton’s £40m swoop for an uncapped Brazilian was always going to draw a lot of fire and especially when the figure was widely reported to be £10million more, a sum only applicable if every clause is met. Add in too that Richarlison very much had a season of two halves last term - brilliant until winter set in then virtually anonymous until May – and perhaps it’s understandable that the size of the transfer fee set the internet ablaze in scorn along with sincere, if exaggerated, disbelief.We’ve seen this reaction before of course and we’re bound to see it again: the mockery; the erroneous comparisons; the hand-wringing declarations that the ‘game has gone lads’. Indeed Twitter is presently preparing to drop its jaw to the floor afresh when Leicester ramp up Harry Maguire’s fee to a rarefied amount following his impressive World Cup showings. Should Manchester United stump up the cash expect your timeline to collapse hysterically like a nineteen-fifties housewife being told some really bad news.Except it will be nothing like this, not in its scale or ferocity. In fact, it could be argued that Everton’s capture of the 21-year-old forward prompted unprecedented levels of stupefied outrage not seen since, well, forever and that includes Neymar’s switch to PSG last summer that at least had the detachment of occurring abroad.

According to journalist Sam Pilger the money paid to Watford ‘perverted this summer’s transfer market for the entire Premier League’. Not heavily influenced. Not impacted. Perverted. Former pro Darren Huckerby and Ladbrokes meanwhile indulged in some historical comparisons that were as relevant to the discussion as Dairylea Triangles or an abandoned moped.

The former helpfully pointed out that the original and best Ronaldo went to Real Madrid for the same amount all the way back in 2002 while the betting firm went further and totted up that in 1996 it would have been possible to buy Rivaldo, Zidane, Seedorf, Ronaldo and Shearer for one Richarlison in 2018. If you’re wondering where this worm-hole leads to incidentally its Stanley Matthews and his entire Stoke side in 1946 equating to Zidane’s toe nail fifty years later.

While the player was completing his medical and holding aloft his new club jersey on the Goodison pitch others stepped back and took in the bigger picture. The new arrival meant that Everton had now spent £246m in the last two years and this figure was broadcast accompanied by shocked emoji faces that will probably be the last thing we see before the world explodes. This is pertinent as we’ll discover very soon.

But first a slant so obvious it really shouldn’t need saying but patently does. In the same window where Everton have splashed out £40m on a player expected to revive their attacking options Manchester United spent £12m more on a midfielder unproven thus far in any of Europe’s elite leagues. It’s hard to recall much hoo-hah about that.

Across Stanley Park meanwhile Liverpool have almost doubled the world record for a goalkeeper and yes Twitter duly had a meltdown but nothing like the one that followed the Richarlison deal. Instead it mainly concentrated on Jurgen Klopp’s hypocrisy. Additionally Manchester City have splurged £60m on Mahrez while Chelsea hoovered up Jorginho for £54m to compete for a role they are already very well stocked in.

Lastly, there is Spurs who continue to be criticised from all and sundry for not getting in on the act and spending forty, fifty, sixty million of their quid.

So is it the player involved that explains why the Richarlison transfer made everyone self-combust? Hardly. Though he faded badly last season his stats are extremely encouraging and while some of the names mentioned above have been greeted to our shores positively due to five minutes of YouTube footagel with Richarlison we have an abundance of moments witnessed first-hand in the Premier League to know that he’s a baller. Furthermore, many of these highlights were performed under the tutorage of Marco Silva, the new Everton coach who the Brazilian deems a father figure.

No, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Richarlison could be a decent addition to the Everton ranks and very possibly a fantastic one. So why the mass hysteria then if it’s not the player or exclusively a fee that has been dwarfed elsewhere? Could it be Everton that’s the problem? It certainly seems so.

For the Toffees were the victims of class snobbery last summer when they invested the perfectly reasonable figure of £25m for a goalkeeper in Jordan Pickford who is not only destined to grow into one of the world’s best stoppers but who enjoyed a fabulous World Cup campaign. By the way, it could be argued that an extra £25m has now been added onto Maguire’s valuation for doing likewise.

They were victims of snobbery when they revamped their squad – to admittedly mixed results – back then at great cost and they’re victims of such superciliousness now because some clubs can spend money and some clubs cannot, and this rule applies despite the billions of TV revenue being evenly distributed across the Premier League.

It’s a condescending who-do-they-think-they-are attitude that is prevalent across the internet and the irony is that it’s held by many who presumably hate the big-club bias that exists. Only here they feed it further, condemning a club for showing ambition; mocking them for doing precisely what this season’s main Champions League contenders have been doing for much of this era in order to remain Champions League contenders.

This week Everton committed themselves to spending forty million pounds on a new signing. Good on them. Here’s to doing likewise several more times over.

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