If a player could be described in two words, then Micah Lincoln Richards would be “total charlatan”.

Never before or since have Villa and Villa fans been taken for a ride like the one perpetrated by Richards.

Greedy, lazy, unconscionable, just some of the words used to describe Richards’ time with Villa.

You could add sickening, too,

Sickening to see his media career gloss over his abject failings.

Sickening to see him attempt to articulate and pontificate on player performance and behaviour.

Sickening to see him apparently believe he deserves his seat around the table amongst some of the most celebrated footballers of any era.

But “total charlatan” will do.

Player #879 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.

Richards was born in Birmingham on 24 June 1988 and was misguidedly signed from Manchester City on a free transfer in July 2015. Richards was one of a series of controversial signings undertaken ostensibly under the leadership of Tim Sherwood but in truth driven by the sheer idiocy of Sporting Director Hendrik Almstadt and Director of Scouting and Recruitment Paddy Riley. Two names that would be painted into Villa folklore for their footballing illiteracy and ultimate responsibility for Villa’s first relegation in three decades.

Richards’ arrival was one of several sub-standard Villa signings that marred the club throughout the 2015-16 campaign and contributed to Villa’s 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 required of top-flight players, on or off the pitch.

Constantly injured and terrible when not, Richards’ signing was pure folly, yet both Sherwood and Villa deserved far more from the player than he was apparently prepared to give.

Richards made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 8 August 2015, aged 27, missing just one of Villa’s first twelve Premier League games of the season, and 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 in 2015-16.

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 appearances 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 Jores Okore score what appeared to many to be an entirely avoidable own goal.

It is fair to say that few who saw it believed it was an accident.

Richards’ second appearance of the season came as a 28th-minute substitute for the injured Nathan Baker in a game which ended 0-0 away at Ipswich - just the sixth clean sheet he had kept in his 31 games with the club.

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

Steve Bruce named Richards in the second-string squad for the 0-2 EFL Cup 3rd Round defeat to Middlesbrough on Tuesday, 19 September 2017, but he remained an unused substitute. A sign of how little the Villa hierarchy felt for Richards’ abilities.

Apart from that one squad appearance, Richards spent the next two and a half seasons injured and unavailable for selection whilst still taking his handsome salary despite having contributed nothing of value to the club since his signature.

Richards finally left the club, retiring from football in May 2019, aged 30 at the end of his highly lucrative Villa contract..

Sickening indeed.

Ironically, Richards’ departure came just as Villa regained promotion to the Premier League and just in time for Villa fans to see Richards in his new role as an outspoken Premier League 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.

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

A total charlatan.