Micah Richards angered Manchester City fans with his comments over the weekend (Image: GETTY)
Micah Richards was already on thin ice with supporters before sparking a furious backlash with his latest comments. The former defender angered fans of his former club while covering ‘s recent defeat to in the .
Appearing as a pundit on the coverage, Richards seemingly implied that he did not consider City as one of English football’s heavyweights. He said: “It’s very open now. What a chance for a team to go and win it. All the big teams are out. are obviously the strongest team left in there but this is what we wanted, teams to get a chance.”
, with some even calling for him to be stripped of his ambassadorial role and sacked by the . He was already on strike one, though, having previously declared his lifelong support for one of their Premier League rivals.
Richards has made it clear that his football allegiances lie with the Gunners (Image: GETTY)
Richards supported while growing up and has never tried to hide his allegiance to the Gunners. He even wore their shirt on live TV while covering their victory over Porto in last season’s Champions League, with Jamie Carragher presenting it as a gift.
“You’ve always tried to be an man, you’ve had the crowd singing your name,” said Carragher as he handed over the shirt, much to the delight of the fans in the immediate vicinity.
Later in the show, when asked by CBS Sports host Kate Abdo how many shirts he had as a youngster, Richards replied: “I had two shirts. [Patrick] Vieira first and Thierry Henry. I still have them at home.”
He first revealed his love for during an episode of the Rest Is Football podcast, recalling his senior debut at Highbury when he came on as a late substitute for Danny Mills.
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“I grew up an fan,” explained Richards. “Not a lot of people know that actually because I went to Manchester at 14, everyone thinks I’m a Manc. I’m actually a Leeds lad.
“I loved Thierry Henry and Vieira. My debut was Highbury away. When we used to travel back then, we would have 21 players or two more. If anyone gets injured or ill they would come into the team, so I had no clue I was going to be on the bench that day.
“I thought I was going to be in the stands and I just remember [Stuart] Pearce reading out the starting line-up and bench. I was 17, you don’t think you’re going to be involved. You’re just thinking who’s got the best pies, what we going to get for after, are we going to have a drink at half-time.
“Then I was in. ‘Oh my god, I’m in’. Then you go in and see Thierry Henry warming up, and Vieira. And not only that, Stuart Pearce brings me on. But he doesn’t bring me on as a defender, he brings me on a striker. [I was] useless.”