Micah Richards has been mocked by Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer for saying that Roy Keane makes him “feel secure”.
Richards and Keane have developed something of a double act on punditry duty for Sky Sports in recent years. So when it came to picking the best 10 midfielders in Premier League history, Richards knew who he had to get near the top.
Appearing on the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast alongside his BBC colleagues, Richards became the butt of the jokes for his comments about former Manchester United captain Keane. Richards put Keane at number two in his list, while Shearer put him in the middle of the pack at number five.
While going through his selections, Lineker jumped in to interrupt Richards and begin the ribbing. “I can see what’s happening here! He doesn’t want to upset Roy when he works with him next!” he joked. Shearer then added: “I thought he was going to get frightened of the stare!”
Explaining his decision to put Keane ahead of greats like Paul Scholes, Patrick Vieira and Frank Lampard, Richards said: “I just go with what I see and Keane was top-notch wasn’t he?
“He scored a lot of goals though, didn’t he, Roy? He wasn’t just a defensive midfielder. It was only when he got his injuries that he went into that position. Before that he was a box-to-box player. I just think when you’ve got someone like Roy on the pitch, you feel secure don’t you? He’ll do the job.”
His colleagues quickly seized on that final comment. Lineker began: “Alright, alright, you can go back to Sky and say: ‘I said some lovely things about you Roy’.”
Mimicking Richards, Shearer added: “‘When you’ve got Roy sat next to you in the studio, you feel really safe.’ Oh what a load of bull****!”
Lineker carried on the theme by saying: “‘I told you Roy, I told you I’d say some lovely things about you! I told ya! Make sure you listen to the best midfielders [podcast]!’”
HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you make of the selections? Comment below.
Richards managed to get through the banter eventually to name the rest of his selections. Both he and Shearer went with former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard as the Premier League’s best midfielder of all time, but the rest of their selections were quite different.
Having played with Yaya Toure at Manchester City, Richards rates him higher than Shearer, who disagreed over Lampard, putting lots of value on the former Chelsea man’s goals.
Here are both pundits’ full selections.
Micah Richards’ top 10 Premier League midfielders:
10. N’Golo Kante
9. Cesc Fabregas
8. Kevin de Bruyne
7. Frank Lampard
6. Yaya Toure
5. David Silva
4. Paul Scholes
3. Patrick Vieira
2. Roy Keane
1. Steven Gerrard
Alan Shearer’s top 10 Premier League midfielders:
10. Cesc Fabregas
9. Yaya Toure
8. N’Golo Kante
7. Patrick Vieira
6. Kevin de Bruyne
5. Roy Keane
4. David Silva
3. Frank Lampard
2. Paul Scholes
1. Steven Gerrard
