Micah Richards certainly has some stories about his time playing professional football, and of his time playing for Manchester City.
Micah Richards was part of the first Manchester City side to lift the Premier League title in 2012, though that proved to be his only Premier League title with the Cityzens
Last season however, Pep Guardiola guided the club to a fourth-straight Premier League title and a sixth under his watch. Right now though, all his side are playing for is an FA Cup: what would be Pep’s third as City manager.
Man City have been knocked out of the Champions League and have fallen well behind in the race for the Premier League title, already a staggering 22 points behind leaders Liverpool with nine games left to play.
Although not mathematically out of the race, realistically it’s been over for a long time. City are playing for 4th and the FA Cup and there’s probably never been, under Pep’s watch anyway, such a need for leaders in the side.
Someone, perhaps, like Vincent Kompany.
Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Why Manchester City players used to avoid Vincent Kompany in training
Speaking back in 2020, Richards was discussing City’s fining system. He explained how previous captain and club legend Kompany used to police the fines and how the Belgian roped Richards into helping him, with Richards eventually becoming one of the senior figures at the Etihad.
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Richards said on BBC Sounds: “It’s difficult because, you know Kompany, he’s busy, isn’t he? He just looks like that person anyway. And he always kept track of the fines, and because I was sort of, vice-captain, one of the leaders in the dressing room, he’d tell me to take charge of it. But I’m not going to say to the manager, ‘a player was late today’ or ‘a player didn’t put his bib in washing machine’. I’m not going to do that.
“So it was only if Vincent Kompany caught you, so the lads were avoiding him.”
Kompany, now 38 and managing Bayern Munich, lifted four Premier League titles with Manchester City, four League Cups and two FA Cups during his 11-year stay in Manchester, making 360 total appearances for the club.
How is Vincent Kompany faring in charge of Bayern Munich?
Last summer, despite overseeing Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League, Kompany was appointed Bayern Munich manager, and he’s since flourished.
They sit top of the Bundesliga table and boast a six point lead over Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen in 2nd. Munich are still in the Champions League too where they next face Inter in April.
In 41 games as Bayern manager so far Kompany has won 29 of them and lost only six, giving him a win rate of 70.73% which is even better than Guardiola’s City win rate of 70.41%, although Pep has obviously been in the dugout a lot longer than Kompany.
But the player who once policed City’s fines with authority is certainly living up to be a good manager, as many at the time might have predicted.