Speaking on The Greatest Game Podcast, Micah Richards has spoken about his departure from Manchester City, claiming that Tottenham wanted to sign him after he left the Etihad.
Richards may be best-known as a pundit these days, but let’s not forget that he was a fantastic player back in the day. After all, he was a former England international and a Premier League winner.
Richards of course ended up moving to Aston Villa after leaving City, but things could have been very different for him if he’d joined Spurs.
“Because of my weight and the amount force I would put on my knee, I was never going to come back the same. So I came back and I knew Zabaleta was in the form of his life, he was then nailed down as number one, there was no getting back into that. He was scoring goals and assisting, I was like ‘I need to do something’, and then Spurs wanted to do the signing, Spurs wanted to sign me,” Richards said.
This is very interesting to hear.
It may feel like Richards has long-been retired, but the reality is that he’s only 32 years old.
Would Mauricio Pochettino have been able to manage his fitness more effectively and prolong his playing career? Who knows, but it’s certainly an interesting point to ponder.
Perhaps Richards would still be playing today if he’d joined Tottenham, but of course, that’s only speculation.
This may go down as one of football’s great ‘what ifs’.
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