Micah Richards - Released

[oswald funkletrumpet]

I think Richards is ok, the problem is the weak midfield in front of him. Okore would add more strength, but where is he?? I thought he was fit now after knee surgery....

Okore needs a long run in the team, he's only started something like 20 odd league games since he signed and one of them was the St Mary's horror show. Is he another injury prone CB? I hope not.

Well, either "yes" or he has a substance-abuse problem, or some suchlike.

okore is a strange one and not much from the club in the past 3 weeks

he played a couple of games before his bad injury and based on what i have seen since he has been mediocre and nothing more. im pinning no hopes on him

[john e]

Richards has had more good performances than bad ones since he joined, MOTM a few times also

the whole team is low on confidence I saw the Man City defence look like the keystone cops on Saturday so it can happen to the best, but I wouldn't be dropping him in a hurry at the moment he is a battler which we need

[LTA]

Finally someone saying it as it is.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/aston-villa/12019414/Micah-Richards-Too-many-Aston-Villa-players-are-not-willing-to-run-the-extra-yard.html

[andyh]

Hmmmm, not sure how that article is going to help.
Seems to me there are some real divisions within the club.

[brian green]

I very much imagine Remi Garde will be having words with him about that article. Counter productive to say the least from a player who has shown some massive shortcomings in his games for us, not least of all fighting in the tunnel and getting a completely unnecessary ban.  Needs to get himself sorted out before he can point the finger at his team mates.

[OzVilla]

From the outside looking in it just seems like our dressing room is horribly divided.  Our culture sounds appalling for a PL outfit.

First the unhelpful comments from Sherwood about the French players, that cretin Wilkins telling the world we weren't good enough to stay up and now Richards questioning certain players desire.  I suspect it may be true but why not just keep your mouth shut. 

Nothing good will come of going to the national press with it.

[Ron Manager]

I like a player who tells it as it is and he certainly has.If Tim Sherwood could not get his ideas over to the French players that is the clubs fault and it should have been addressed. Richards is not happy and does not disguise it
His mate Lescott being useless cannot help his frame of mind.

[Tuscans]

The Micah interview from the telegraph....

Micah Richards is sitting in a dressing room at Aston Villa’s training ground and pulling no punches on the season so far. He always knew his first season back in the Premier League would be difficult, but this has been an eye-opening experience that even he cannot have envisaged when he bid farewell to Florence.

Tim Sherwood, the manager who signed him, was sacked in October after 10 games and Villa are bottom of the table under Rémi Garde, with fears growing that this could be the season they are relegated. Last weekend at Everton, Villa produced arguably their worst performance of the campaign in losing 4-0, with Richards admitting that an 8-0 defeat would have been a fair reflection.
And ahead of Saturday’s huge game against Watford, the time has come for a few home truths from the captain, in a brutally honest assessment of the club’s struggles.


“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, we’ve got too many nice players and we’re too easy to play against,” he said. “Everybody seems to be – I wouldn’t say passing the blame – but they don’t want to run that extra mile and take responsibility. I’m not big on stats but I think we’ve run the least in the Premier League – if you’re not prepared to run the extra yard for your team-mate then obviously you’re going to concede chances.
“When we’ve got the ball we’re fine but defensively we’re too nice and it’s too easy to get past us. We haven’t got the players who have the mentality to not lose the game.
“There’s a few good players in the team and they’re probably thinking, ‘If Villa get relegated I’ll get a move in the summer’ – but it doesn’t work like that any more. They’ve got a massive chance at Villa, a club with great tradition and great facilities, and we need to realise the situation we’re in now.


“People said we’d always struggle when [Fabian] Delph and [Christian] Benteke went, but that’s gone now. Get that out of your head. Go and show that you’re the next Benteke and we don’t need them. That’s the attitude I have.”
How Garde could do with more players like Richards, who has led by example for much of the season and grasped what is at stake. Richards could have signed for a number of other Premier League clubs this summer after his contract at Manchester City expired. He had talks with West Ham United and Sunderland, but Sherwood’s sales pitch swung him to Villa, despite five years of the club battling against relegation.
But soon after the defender’s arrival, Delph jumped ship to join Richards' former club City, barely a week after insisting he would stay, while talismanic striker Benteke moved to Liverpool for £32.5million. Villa signed 12 players over the summer, with many of the new recruits coming from Ligue 1 in France, yet there is already huge pressure on chairman Randy Lerner to spend in January to save their season. When Richards is asked if Premier League experience is lacking, his response is admirably honest again. “Yeah, I think it is. You need experience in the Premier League and the players that will go over and beyond for you.


“I don’t want to blame anything on the new players. When I went to Italy [he spent a season on loan at Fiorentina] I wasn’t expecting to be the best player there. But we’ve had people come from France, Spain and the Championship and they need time.
“It’s not about if they’re not good enough, they need time to adapt and we haven’t got that now. The new manager has come in and hopefully he can get the best out of the French players, because there were certain things Tim was trying to get across that they didn’t understand because of the language barrier.”
Now 27, Richards has an abundance of experience at the top level of English football, ever since his star-is-born performance for City at Villa Park in a 2006 FA Cup tie. He flashes that trademark smile when you remind him of that game, when he scored a dramatic equaliser, ran into the crowd to celebrate and then dropped the F-bomb in a live post-match interview with Garth Crooks.


He has since lifted a Premier League title and the FA Cup under Roberto Mancini at City, made 13 appearances for England and played at the London Olympics in 2012. Relegation battles are nothing new, however.
“People think because I was at City that I’ve only won leagues and cups, but I was there when we were struggling. They don’t understand that I’ve been through this before when I was younger, so I know what it takes to get out of it. It’s just whether the other players understand what we’re in, do you know what I mean?”
Richards talks fondly of that season at Fiorentina, even though he made only seven league starts. He embraced life in Italy, and could have stayed in Serie A, but the lure of returning to the Premier League was always there.
“It was weird at Fiorentina, because I wouldn’t sign a contract and commit, so they played somebody else. But I definitely think it was still a good move and living in Florence was probably one of the best times of my life,” he said. “The football isn’t anywhere near the Premier League, though. There’s a lot of good technical players but it’s a little bit slower and boring to watch. This is more suited to me.

Despite their travails, Richards 'has enjoyed every single minute' at Villa
“Coming here was a massive relief for me and, to be honest, apart from the situation we’re in, I’ve enjoyed every single minute. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy but I still didn’t think it would be this tough.”
After two games in charge, Garde is acutely aware of the task ahead and Villa will face Watford five points adrift of 17th-placed Newcastle. There have also been further unpalatable headlines this week after footage emerged of Jack Grealish partying in a Manchester nightclub after last weekend’s defeat at Everton. Richards is determined to lead a response after that nightmare.
“We came up against an amazing team and they capitalised on all our weaknesses. It was lucky to be 4-0, it should have been 8-0, to be honest. It was like a training game for them. I think we had one shot all afternoon. Now we’ve got a massive game against Watford and if we win we can cut the gap on the teams above us. It’s not over for us, just look at Leicester last season.
“I like a challenge and if we get out of this we will have done very well. We have to stop the talking and just do it.”

[Dave]

"We have to stop the talking and just do it.”

I wonder if he appreciates the irony that he is pretty much the only player who seems to be giving lengthy interviews on the subject at the moment.

[Steve67]

"We have to stop the talking and just do it.”

I wonder if he appreciates the irony that he is pretty much the only player who seems to be giving lengthy interviews on the subject at the moment.

I agree. Captain motormouth. Yes he's arguably our best defender, the best of a bad bunch, but I wonder if Tim is still feeding him shit from behind the scenes. Keep it shut Micah and start proving it.

[Clampy]

I don't think he's said too much wrong in that interview, we all know we're too nice a team and easy to play against. That said, maybe laying off any more interviews and getting on with it would probably be best for now.

[brian green]

I think it absolutely essential that criticism of team mates is done behind closed doors. What earthly good can come of public displays of disunity?  Unless of course the intention is to show support for Sherwood and if that were the case Remi Garde is going to take an even dimmer view of the article.

[aj2k77]

I don't like how he's thrown the French players under the bus there. Couldn't understand what Dim is trying to get across? We signed them knowing they were French so we've got to help them understand, not give up on them after 7 or 8 games the fucking idiots. I can't imagine it would have been anything more than ''facking passion and balls, where's the facking passion and balls!!''

[aj2k77]

Richards is no centre back and certainly no captain of Villa either. He'll be one of the first ****** throwing his toys out of the pram when we go down for a transfer.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

Richards is no centre back and certainly no captain of Villa either. He'll be one of the first c***s throwing his toys out of the pram when we go down for a transfer.

This

He has been average at best and when we go a goal behind at VP is he rolling his sleeves up and trying to gee everyone up?

is he fuck