Micah Richards hits back at Manchester City fans questioning his support for the club | OneFootball

Manchester City ambassador and television pundit Micah Richards has been forced to give a passionate defence of his support for the club on a new podcast appearance.

The former defender, who came through the academy ranks at City before becoming one of the faces of the club’s modern rise, has found himself at the centre of an unexpected social media storm.

A viral clip appearing to show Micah Richards distraught at Arsenal conceding to Wolverhampton Wanderers sparked claims from some supporters that his loyalties may not lie entirely in sky blue.

Richards – who made 245 appearances for Manchester City and was part of the squads that lifted both the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League title in the unforgettable 2011/12 campaign – has long been regarded as one of the club’s best academy success stories.

Since retiring in 2019, he has remained closely tied to Manchester City and the Etihad Stadium as an official ambassador while building a flourishing media career, making appearances with Sky Sports, BBC Sport, and CBS.

Appearing on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football podcast, Micah Richards hit back at Manchester City fans who have severely questioned his support for the club in recent days amid a suggestion that he is actually an Arsenal fan.

“I think I need to address this properly. I was on CBS the other day, we were talking about Arsenal. We were on the phone checking scores. I had Gabriel captain — and you know what fantasy football’s like. When they conceded, I was devastated,” Richards insisted.

“They’ve clipped that moment up. [Jamie] Carragher’s saying, ‘Why are you sad for?’ But they didn’t show the full context of the video. And now I’m getting absolute pelters from Man City [fans] over what started as a joke,” he continued.

Richards went on to explain, “Yes, I liked Arsenal when I was a kid. But when I went to Manchester City, I’ve been City through and through ever since.

“The phrase I used was that I support Man City on air and Arsenal off air — which was said on ‘League of Their Own’, in a format where we’re having fun. And people are actually taking it as gospel, like I don’t bleed Man City. It’s madness to me.

“If City are going for all competitions, I want Manchester City to win. The whole Arsenal thing — yes, I liked them as a kid — but the joke’s gone too far now.”

Micah Richards has never hidden the fact that he admired Arsenal as a youngster, idolising the likes of Ian Wright and Patrick Vieira before his own professional journey began in Manchester.

However, his decade-long association with Manchester City – spanning the pre-takeover years through to the club’s transformation into domestic champions – has firmly embedded him in the fabric of the club’s recent history.

Now a regular face across major broadcasters, Richards’ profile has only grown since hanging up his boots. But despite the light-hearted nature of much of his media work, the former right-back was keen to stress that when it comes to footballing allegiance, there is no ambiguity.