Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer slate Micah Richards for…

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer slate Micah Richards for Roy Keane relationship

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer poked fun at Micah Richards for saying Roy Keane makes him "feel secure."

In recent years, Richards and Keane have become somewhat of a double act while serving as Sky Sports pundits. Richards knew who he had to include in his list of the top 10 midfielders in Premier League history as a result.

Richards was the brunt of jokes for his remarks about former Manchester United captain Keane when he and his BBC colleagues appeared on the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast. Shearer ranked Keane fifth, while Richards placed him at number two.

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]!’”

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