Player #875 for Aston Villa, Micah Lincoln Richards played as a centre back for the club in Villa’s Premier League relegation season of 2015-16 and during the Football League Championship campaign of 2016-17 making 31 appearances and scoring twice.

Micah was born in Birmingham on 24 June 1988.

Tim Sherwood’s Villa had signed Richards from Manchester City on a free transfer in July 2015 and his arrival was one of a number of sub-standard Villa signings that maligned the club throughout the 2015-16 campaign and drove Villa to their first relegation in nearly 30 years. Players such as Richards as well as Jordan Ayew, Jordan Veretout, Adama Traoré, Rudy Gestede, Joleon Lescott and José Ángel Crespo were brought to the club despite being nowhere near the standard for a top flight player and Villa paid the price.

Constantly injured and not terribly impressive when fit, Richard’s signing was pure folly, yet both Sherwood and Villa deserved far more from the player.

Richards made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 8 August 2015 aged 27 with Villa recording what would turn out to be a rare victory over AFC Bournemouth in the opening game of the 2015-16 Premier League season.

Richards missed just one of Villa’s first 12 Premier League games of the season, scoring in the final game of that run on Saturday, 28 November 2015 in Villa’s 2-3 home defeat to Watford.

That match preceded Richards’ first spell out injured, Richards returned for the final game of 2015, a 0-2 defeat at Norwich City before playing in the 1-3 loss at Sunderland. Richards then scored his second and final goal for the club in the FA Cup 3rd Round tie at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday, 9 January 2016. A game in which Villa fans’ anger over the mishandling of the club was vented in full force at players and staff.

With Richards sitting out the next two games, Villa won one and drew one in consecutive Premier league games for the first time this season. Once Richards was recalled to the side however the losses again began to stack up.

In total during his debut season Richards had appeared on 27 occasions, losing 20.

Whilst the entirety of Villa’s failings could not be blamed on a single player, Richards was a shining light for the folly of signing a player on name only.

In the 2016-17 season, Richards made just two appearance under Roberto Di Matteo. His first came as a starter in the 1-3 EFL Cup defeat to Luton Town in which Villa were humiliated and saw Richards’ defensive partner score what appeared to many to be an entirely avoidable own goal.

Richards’ second appearance of the season came as a 28’ substitute for the injured Nathan Baker in a game which ended 0-0 away at Ipswich Town and represented a rare clean sheet for Villa with Richards in the side having kept just 6 in his 31 games with the club.

Richards made his final appearance for Villa on Saturday, 15 October 2016 aged 28 in the 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers which was also Steve Bruce’s first game in charge of Villa.

Steve Bruce named Richards in the 0-2 EFL Cup 3rd Round defeat to Middlesbrough on Tuesday, 19 September 2017 but he remained an unused substitute.

Apart from that one squad appearance, Richards spent the next two and a half seasons injured and unavailable for selection and finally left the club, retiring from football in May 2019 aged 30. Ironically Richards’ departure came just as Villa regained promotion to the Premier League.

Richards played under Tim Sherwood, Rémi Garde, Eric Black, Roberto Di Matteo and Steve Bruce.

Richards now spends his time as a somewhat outspoken pundit advising players on how they should play the game to best effect. The irony is not lost on Villa fans and surely neither is it lost on Tim Sherwood and Rémi Garde.