Richards eyes City record book

Micah Richards says he wants to stay at Manchester City and elevate himself onto the top 10 of the club’s all-time appearances list.

The 23-year-old reached the 200 appearances milestone against Wolves in the League Cup in October, having made his debut in 2005, and says he has no desire to play anywhere else.

“I’ve always said since I came in that I don’t want to leave City,” Richards told the club’s official website.

“Unless someone comes in and takes my place and does a better job, then you’ve got to hold your hands up, but I’ll keep playing, keep working hard and improving. There’s no reason why I can’t do that.”

“As long as I stay fit and healthy, that’s the main thing, then to go down in history and get into those top 10 appearances would be a massive achievement for me. Hopefully I can do that.”

The right-back also spoke of his emergence at the club as a youngster, when he was occasionally brought on as a striker or midfielder by then-manager Stuart Pearce.

“When you’re younger, you’re not really looking to knuckle down a particular space so soon,” the Leeds-born defender explained.

“You just want to play wherever, be it 10 minutes where you’ve got to come on up front, or filling in somewhere in midfield, you’ll do anything for the team. I was enjoying myself just to be playing.”

“When you’re young all you want to do is play football and you’re not always guaranteed to make it.”

“There were always players better than me that haven’t made it due to different reasons. As much as it is an unbelievable job, and everyone would love to do it, there are a lot of things that come with it that people don’t want to handle.”

“It’s just good that I can still be around it because I love football.”

Richards also praised the influence of former colleague Richard Dunne, his partner at centre-back until 2009, who now plays for Premier League rivals Aston Villa.

“I’ve always said Richard Dunne is probably one of the best centre-halves I’ve played with on and off the pitch,” Richards added.

“He’s such a good player, I think he’s very under-rated, but I think the fans here know how good he was.”

“It was just such an honour to play with him, because I used to make so many mistakes and Richard Dunne would cover for me but he never really used to get the credit. I used to get the credit because I was young and playing with him, but he used to do all my mopping up.”

Richards will need to beat Willie Donachie’s record of 433 matches in order to break into the top ten of City’s all-time appearances list.