Reds eye Richards raid

March 26, 2007

Reds target: Micah Richards

CITY are bracing themselves for a £20m summer bid from rivals United for Micah Richards.

Sir Alex Ferguson, well aware that mega-bucks Chelsea have identified Richards as a potential target, will not want soccer's hottest property slipping from under his nose.

But the Blues are ready to offer the 18-year-old defender a pay rise to try to keep him - even though he's only 12 months into a four-year contract.

But any issues, including ongoing takeover talks, are firmly on the backburner at City as boss Stuart Pearce, who was earlier this month on the brink of the sack, and his under-achieving squad concentrate on winning the six points that are likely to ensure Premiership survival.

The club will have a traumatic close season with the potential takeover saga likely to be resolved and Pearce's long-term future sorted out.

If the mystery American consortium, which remains in prime position in a four-way battle, does buy a majority shareholding at Eastlands they have promised to hand the manager, be it Pearce or his replacement, £10m to rebuild the squad - a factor that could remove the need to sell Richards, pictured above playing for England on Saturday.

An offer close to the £21m received from Chelsea for Shaun Wright-Phillips - also a product of the Blues' academy - would give the City board another headache with a fans' backlash certain should they allow the supremely versatile Richards, the highest paid teenager in the club's history, to follow Wyn Davies and Tony Cotton across the great divide.

United, who remain in the driving seat to land Owen Hargreaves this summer, are playing their cards close to their chest but Fergie will be looking long term to find a challenger for long-serving Gary Neville.

Peter Barnes, who moved from City to United via Coventry, today urged Richards to stay at City, saying: "When I went to United it was from Coventry and a long time after I had been at City. Reds boss Dave Sexton, who was my England under-21 manager, would have liked to buy me but City would never have sold me directly to United.

"If I was Micah I would just sit tight at City no matter who said they wanted me and keep on learning my trade. He is liked by the fans and playing for the Blues has not done him any harm or stopped him winning England caps and I am sure City will still be in the Premiership next season.

"Anyone who left City for United would probably get stick for the rest of his life. But if the Reds do make an enquiry then City should quote a ridiculous price!"

Should United try to sign Richards? Have your say.

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Birdy, Ireland (26/03/2007 at 09:08)

20m is a hell of a lot of money for an unproven 18 yr old. He does look to have massive potential, and right back is a position we're going to have to look at, but have we the money? I think its fairly obvious that we need a few players sooner rather than later. We dont have a lot after Scholes and Carrick and its accepted that we're probably going to sign Hargreaves in the summer. We apparetnly have a 20m bid still on the table. I think its fair to say we need another striker too. Its hard to see how we could bring anyone in up front for less than 10m at a minimum. Then theres the left wing. Giggs is still doing well for us, but how long do we let it go before looking to bring someone in? I think ideally in the summer, as any replacement could only benefit from learning directly from Giggs. For arguements sake, assuming the Nani reports were right he'd cost 13.5. So thats 20 for Hargreaves, 10 (at least) for a striker, 13.5 for Nani and 20 for Richards. 63.5m. Not gonna be holding my breath on this one

Reds4Ever, West Yorkshire (26/03/2007 at 09:28)

A great prospect but we need to spend elsewhere.

Alias Smith, over the moon (26/03/2007 at 09:33)

20 million for Richards eh? I wonder where they got that one from? 20 million just seems to be price slapped on any player the tabloids want to link United with! Why would we want Richards when, as Birdy says, we have other areas of the squad in greater need of strengthening. Plus, we've got Brown, Bardsley and Simpson as cover for Neville. Also, why assume we have to buy to cover all of the areas that need strengthening Birdy? We do have some very promising youngsters.

Mick, Dublin (26/03/2007 at 09:47)

I read a report at the weekend about Brazil's qualification campaign for the U-17 World Cup. The Brazilian fullbacks are two twins, Fabio and Rafael, both of whom are signed to United.

Fabio plays at left back and is captain of the team, he is also Brazil's TOP-SCORER in the qualification campaign so far. Both twins are very highly rated with Fabio, in particular, being raved about in the Brazilian press. Apparently both of them have Portugese passports and will be eligible to play for United by the beginning of '08.

So, when you throw Bardsley and Simpson in the mix we've got a glut of decent young full-backs on our books.

But we are definitely stronger on our left than on our right, especially when you bear in mind the respective ages of G Nev vs. Evra/Heinze. With that in mind, I think we should forget about Bale (who was very unimpressive at the weekend) and use the money saved to test City's resolve over Richards. £20m is a totally made-up figure, I think he will cost us £12m+ but will be worth every penny.

stu, london (26/03/2007 at 10:08)

Yawn.

Frank Old Trafford (26/03/2007 at 10:10)

Is it the 1st of April already? Are the pigs flying over Deansgate this morning? Apparently so! Last week we had the MEN telling us "Sporting put high price on Nani", now what was it again? 40 mill or 50 mill, no, no 13.5 mill quid! Of course the wisemen will inform me that Nani is not English and therfore would cost much less, after another example against Israel of how much better English players are than anybody else, I'm surprised the economical figure of 20 million has been quoted. By the way Balders that 10 million quid you were going to give from the whip round, I think you'd better send it to OT, they need it much more than I do!

Lee , Heywood, Heywood (26/03/2007 at 10:11)

Which youngsters do you fancy will make the grade Alias ?? For me Rossi is a cert. Also Evans is a cert. Then you have Pique who has the ability but needs the opportunity. Then possibly the likes of Simpson and Bardsley and Gibson, who I think is a couple of years younger. After that I am not convinced on the rest as they are mostly not getting games for there loan clubs like Martin at Stoke etc. Most of the promise is in defence where we already have great options. Midfeild and up front is incredibly sparse.

bobbydazzler (26/03/2007 at 10:14)

Alias for once I actually think you are spot on with your comments we have plenty of young talent already at our club who could easily make the grade. The one area where we are very very very short is midfield and I am unsure whether any of the kids are good enough.

Alias Smith, over the moon (26/03/2007 at 10:21)

Lee, I think you have answered your own question and, yes, the most promising youngsters are in defence plus Rossi. We will have to look outside the club for a top class midfielder.

Mick, Dublin (26/03/2007 at 10:30)

I'm gonna agree with BobbyD, we are short of young talent in the centre of midfield.

Mind you, Pique has played almost half of his games for Zaragoza as a holding midfielder, so one or two of our kids may yet surprise us.

Having said all that, I would be keen for us to snap up one young central midfielder who has the potential to be world-class (which is not something you can say about any of our central midfielders, either at reserve or academy level).

I've heard great things about Moutinho and, by all accounts, he was superb for Portugal at the weekend. If we're serious about signing Nani, why not add another Portugeezer to our squad?

edinburgh red, edinburgh (26/03/2007 at 10:35)

When i've seen him play he reminds me of a sunday league player throwing hiself into challenges rashly and barging into everyone in the oppositions box, 20 million as ricky would say your having a laugh, almost as funny as paying over 10 million for carrick, oh wait we did.

Birdy, Ireland (26/03/2007 at 10:39)

Alias thats a fair point about the young lads coming through. Hopefully some of them do prove good enough. I think realistically we're gonna buy Hargreaves, so thats probably 20m gone. Rossi hopefully can do the trick up front. I've not been convinced by Martin on the left though and i think we'll have to get someone in here. Up front Rossi will hopefully be good enough - i suppose the thing is, as has been said on here before, with Chelsea's spending power, and probably Liverpool's too, there's not as much scope to let the young lads come in and make mistakes and develop. Frank, good point about the English players. There's certainly a premium price on their heads as this Richards story shows, but the evidence of the national team doesn't justify the inflated fees

george (26/03/2007 at 10:40)

Do we need Micah Richards? Not desperately,but Gary Neville won't last forever!
If Richards comes I think it would mean the OH deal might be off.
No need to panic buy but we should strengthen.

TMUF, Manchester (26/03/2007 at 10:41)

20m? You're having a laugh! How can richard be anywhere near the same price tag as SWP. They have/had the same amount of potential so why the hell would a RB cost the same as a RW. He is a decent prospect, yes, and would be an ideal replacement for GN, but there is NO way he costs that much. I would much rather one of our youngters then shelling out that much. Oh and recently, both Riquelme and Gattuso said United tried to sign them in the summer. Gattuso seems like he would like tojoin but says with a contract to 2011, AC milan won't sell. As for Riquelme, he said he turned us down, if thats true then WHAT A RELIEF!!! Anyway my point is lots of people still to this day moan about the World Class signings Gill 'promised'. Doesn't anyone think Gill was over confident and he had two in mind that ultimately didn't sign for various reasons?

Paul (26/03/2007 at 10:56)

So that's Hargreaves for 25mil, Nani for 13mil, Richards for 20mil, Torres for 25mil and Deco for 15mil. That's near 100mil. Anyone else wanna bet on Senna being our only signing for 5mil with a few players leaving?

Jonathan Chin, Truly Asia (26/03/2007 at 10:58)

Our rival wont sell cheaply to us. So.... next!!!

george (26/03/2007 at 10:59)

Who wouldn't want to play for a team with Christiano Ronaldo in it?
I think Ronaldo's emergence as a footballing great will strengthen UNITED's chances of signing world class players.
Even without Ronaldo we have a very capable team but to play along side him must be a real incentive for players to come to OT.

TMUF, Manchester (26/03/2007 at 11:10)

I haven't seen much of Nani at all to be honest so wouldn't like to comment on him. I am surprised how so many people have - I dont count youtube as a reliable source! But from what i have seen, Quaresma would be far better. Everytime I have seen him at Porto he has impressed and his goal for Portugal was pure class. Ronaldo bagged another brace and surely must be one of the highest scoring midfielders for Portugal already! He and Quaresma would run riot together in the Premiership. Porto aren't exactly the biggest club so wouldn't surprise me if he left soon. Forget Nani, Quaresma all the way!

Alias Smith, over the moon (26/03/2007 at 11:13)

Birdy, haven't you heard Liverpool's new owners have bought the club with hundreds of millions of debt? Not sure where their spending power is going to come from!

Demo, Glossop (26/03/2007 at 11:17)

Sounds a bit dear for me. For 20 million i would be wanting zambrotta or someone who is world class! He seems good but not that good and i think we might be ok defensively without him.

As for the english having bigger price tags thats because of the regulations coming in soon requiring a certain amount of the team to be from the country the team is based in uniteds case - england. Thats why fergie is looking for english plus the fact he knows they will never win anything so less internationals for them to play :)

I think rossi will do a good job and could be dropped into the scholes hole. Otherwise im not sure of any really good future midfielders coming through so i think left wing is priority if OH is coming in that covers cm a bit more but a decent cm youngster would be good as well.

chris, oxford (26/03/2007 at 11:31)

I'm with you on that one TMUF.

Mick, Dublin (26/03/2007 at 11:32)

TMUF, in Portugal, Nani is rated as a far more exciting prospect than Quaresma. It was a peach of a goal though.

I'd be delighted if either of them are wearing red next season. Not least because it would give Ronnie added incentive to stay with us longer.

Birdy, Ireland (26/03/2007 at 11:52)

Alias there seems to have been mixed reports on the debt Liverpool have or dont have after the takeover. Most of the reports i've sen say that they dont have any debt. Either way though, i'd be shocked if they didnt stump up quite a bit of money for transfers, particularly when you consider how long Liverpool have been looking for investors, i think its safe to say Parry and Moores would have been looking for the buyers to be promising significant investment in the squad. Either way, in relation to the Richards story, i think 20m is far far too much. Regulations on players nationality or not, he ain't worth that kind of money. I think even Chelski would walk away at the price. At most he's worth half that. I think City would actually take less money for him rather than sell him to us anyway

Alias Smith, over the moon (26/03/2007 at 12:11)

Birdy, I wasn't aware there had been "mixed reports" on Liverpool's debt - as far as I knew it was fact. I will have to bow to your greater knowledge.

george (26/03/2007 at 12:27)

I thought the U S A bought Liverpool but were borrowing £200+ million to build a stadium.Anyway my minds on UNITED.
Six more wins!

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