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Richards is keen on City stay but lure of Chelsea still strong
James Ducker
£15m asking price for defender
Londoners would quadruple wages
Micah Richards, the highly rated young England defender, moved to quash speculation yesterday that he could be persuaded to leave Manchester City by pledging his immediate future to the club.
As revealed in The Times last week, Chelsea are preparing to make a bid for Richards when the transfer window opens in January. José Mourinho has identified the 18-year-old as the man to fill the right-back position that has caused the Chelsea manager so many problems this season and the club are unlikely to be deterred by an asking price of at least £15 million.
Richards, however, has insisted that he is content in Manchester, although City supporters will remember that Shaun Wright-Phillips made similar noises shortly before he was transferred to Stamford Bridge for £21 million in the summer of last year.
“I’m very happy to be a City player,” Richards said. “I’m getting first-team football and playing every week and also representing my country and I don’t think I could ask for more than that.”
Richards first came to the fore towards the end of last season, but it is his performances this term that have caught the eye of Chelsea and Steve McClaren, the England head coach, who handed the defender his international debut in the 1-1 draw against Holland in a friendly last month.
Despite Richards’s apparent desire to stay at City, the allure of Chelsea may prove to be too great to resist, even if City — and Stuart Pearce, their manager, who has claimed that it would take a “ridiculously big offer” to prise the player away — are certain to drive a hard bargain.
Not only would the Barclays Premiership champions be able to quadruple Richards’s £12,500-a-week wages, they could more or less guarantee the defender first-team football, which, at a club seemingly intent on collecting the world’s best players, is some offer.
Neither Paulo Ferreira nor Khalid Boulahrouz has managed to make the right-back slot his own, while Gérémi has yet to convince Mourinho that he can operate as easily in the position as in midfield.
Arsenal have also been monitoring Richards’s progress — as have a number of clubs in Italy and Spain, albeit merely as a watching brief — although the North London club are reluctant to get dragged into a bidding war with Chelsea.
After a whirlwind past 12 months, Richards — who had made only one fleeting substitute appearance in the Premiership this time last year — claimed that he is just trying to take things one step at a time. “I’m just taking things in my stride,” he said. “Whatever comes my way, I try and handle. There’s no point holding back and thinking, ‘Just over a year ago, I hadn’t even played in the first team.’ I only look forward to the future.”
If Richards needed someone to sell Chelsea to him, Wright-Phillips might not be the man, given the winger’s difficulty in winning a first-team place there, although the pair do know each other “fairly well” and sat together on England’s flight to Amsterdam last month. “He [Wright-Phillips] was asking how things are going at City,” Richards said.
The attention that has followed his England call-up would only be magnified in the event that Richards joined Chelsea, but the player seems happy in the limelight. “Things have definitely changed now,” he said. “More people come up and talk to me and it’s been very noticeable even when I just walk down the street.
“I’d rather people know me than not have a clue who I am — it’s a good feeling when people say ‘hello’ or ‘well done’. I don’t mind the attention.”
James Ducker
£15m asking price for defender
Londoners would quadruple wages
Micah Richards, the highly rated young England defender, moved to quash speculation yesterday that he could be persuaded to leave Manchester City by pledging his immediate future to the club.
As revealed in The Times last week, Chelsea are preparing to make a bid for Richards when the transfer window opens in January. José Mourinho has identified the 18-year-old as the man to fill the right-back position that has caused the Chelsea manager so many problems this season and the club are unlikely to be deterred by an asking price of at least £15 million.
Richards, however, has insisted that he is content in Manchester, although City supporters will remember that Shaun Wright-Phillips made similar noises shortly before he was transferred to Stamford Bridge for £21 million in the summer of last year.
“I’m very happy to be a City player,” Richards said. “I’m getting first-team football and playing every week and also representing my country and I don’t think I could ask for more than that.”
Richards first came to the fore towards the end of last season, but it is his performances this term that have caught the eye of Chelsea and Steve McClaren, the England head coach, who handed the defender his international debut in the 1-1 draw against Holland in a friendly last month.
Despite Richards’s apparent desire to stay at City, the allure of Chelsea may prove to be too great to resist, even if City — and Stuart Pearce, their manager, who has claimed that it would take a “ridiculously big offer” to prise the player away — are certain to drive a hard bargain.
Not only would the Barclays Premiership champions be able to quadruple Richards’s £12,500-a-week wages, they could more or less guarantee the defender first-team football, which, at a club seemingly intent on collecting the world’s best players, is some offer.
Neither Paulo Ferreira nor Khalid Boulahrouz has managed to make the right-back slot his own, while Gérémi has yet to convince Mourinho that he can operate as easily in the position as in midfield.
Arsenal have also been monitoring Richards’s progress — as have a number of clubs in Italy and Spain, albeit merely as a watching brief — although the North London club are reluctant to get dragged into a bidding war with Chelsea.
After a whirlwind past 12 months, Richards — who had made only one fleeting substitute appearance in the Premiership this time last year — claimed that he is just trying to take things one step at a time. “I’m just taking things in my stride,” he said. “Whatever comes my way, I try and handle. There’s no point holding back and thinking, ‘Just over a year ago, I hadn’t even played in the first team.’ I only look forward to the future.”
If Richards needed someone to sell Chelsea to him, Wright-Phillips might not be the man, given the winger’s difficulty in winning a first-team place there, although the pair do know each other “fairly well” and sat together on England’s flight to Amsterdam last month. “He [Wright-Phillips] was asking how things are going at City,” Richards said.
The attention that has followed his England call-up would only be magnified in the event that Richards joined Chelsea, but the player seems happy in the limelight. “Things have definitely changed now,” he said. “More people come up and talk to me and it’s been very noticeable even when I just walk down the street.
“I’d rather people know me than not have a clue who I am — it’s a good feeling when people say ‘hello’ or ‘well done’. I don’t mind the attention.”
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