‘The real deal’: Micah Richards says 33-year-old ‘was a machine when he was at Spurs’

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Speaking on the UMM YouTube channel, Micah Richards has been discussing some of the run-ins he had with Gareth Bale back in the day.

Bale was one of the most fearsome wingers in the Premier League in the early 2010s while he was playing for Tottenham Hotspur, and unfortunately for Richards, he had the task of marking Bale on more than one occasion.

Richards says he contemplated giving up the game after playing against Bale on the opening day of the 2010/11 season, stating that Bale destroyed him during that game.

Richards hated playing against Bale

The pundit spoke about what it was like to play against the former Tottenham star.

“Yeah you know what I remember years ago, the first game of the season we go to Spurs and Bale destroyed me. If it weren’t for Joe Hart I wouldn’t have played the rest of the season. He destroyed me, the game was 0-0 in the end, and I remember it like it was yesterday. I knew I was as quick as him and I was stronger than him, but he’s fitter than me, he can keep going every single time. He was a machine when he was at Spurs, he was the real deal,” Richards said.

Unplayable

On his day there wasn’t a single defender on the planet who could defend against Bale.

The winger’s mix of speed, stamina and skill made him genuinely unplayable.

Richards wasn’t able to handle Bale back in 2010, but there’s no shame in that. After all, the likes of Maicon and Dani Alves couldn’t deal with the Welshman when he was at his best.

As Richards says, Bale was the real deal at Spurs, and he’ll surely go down as one of the most effective and talented Premier League players of all-time.