After officially being released, along with various other players three days ago, Micah Richards’ move to Aston Villa looks imminent, after he allegedly agreed to a move to join Tim Sherwood’s outfit. The paradox of a grey midlands skyline against his short stay in sunny Florence will be stark, yet nothing he won’t be immune to after 10 long years at City.
When City took on Richards as part of their academy set up in 2001, after joining from Oldham Athletic, they knew they had a special player on their hands. Fast, athletic, strong and clearly someone who was very motivated. After impressing at academy level, he saw himself elevated to the first team where he became a regular fixture in Stuart Pearce’s starting XI, Pearce was a huge admirer of the Leeds born full back and spoke highly of him in order to fend off interest from other Premier League clubs who wanted his services.
Creating a niche for himself in the right-back position, he quickly became a fans favourite and was evidently impressing many, as he saw himself nominated for ‘PFA Young Player of the Year Award’ in 2006-07. He scored his debut goal against Sunderland in 2009 and continued to rack up valuable appearances for Mark Hughes’ side throughout the season. In our first title-winning season he finished the campaign with 5 assists, the highest for any Premier League defender, and played a large role in helping City to a staggering 17 clean sheets. In the follow up seasons, Richards saw his place come under threat as Pablo Zabaleta continued to impress and he was ostracised from first team duty. His football became unstructured too as he was mired with various injuries and in particular a hamstring injury that just wouldn’t rectify itself, kept on persisting. He turned out a mere two times in the Premier League in the 2013/14 season, this lack of football led to an exotic loan move to Fiorentina where he made only 10 appearances for ‘La Viola’.
As Richards closes his City chapter, he needn’t worry about the way City fans will view his departure. He built up a fantastic rapport with large amounts of the City faithful and had excellent relationships with players such as Joleon Lescott, Nigel De Jong and James Milner. He was charismatic and his raucous laugh heard on various ‘Inside City’ episodes will be dearly forgotten. Richards spoke glowingly of his time at City in a post he made on his Instagram account after his release: ”I just wanted to thank the Man City fans for the amazing support they’ve given me. The club, the manager, the staff who work behind the scenes, the players, but most importantly the fans -everyone- will always have a special place in my heart.”
These words are testament to what he feels about City, which he went on to describe as a ”family”. As he turns a page on his City career we shouldn’t forget the excellent servant that was Micah Richards and everything he’s done for the club.
I think I speak for every City fan when I say we wish him the best of luck in his new adventure at Villa and hope that he may potentially be back at City in a non-footballing capacity in the not so distant future.
