Source: Northern_Echo
Saturday Spotlight: Backward step boosts World Cup bid
Kieran Richardsons career has been shaped by a succession of larger than life figures, from his father Clyde to a quartet of Manchester United legends.
Andy Richardson looks at the career of the Sunderland player whose switch to left-back has handed him a chance to play in next summers World Cup finals.
AT the end of his trial at Manchester United, 14-year-old Kieran Richardson felt confident that, in football parlance, he had played a blinder.
His dad Clyde, however, was a bag of nerves as he chatted to the other parents on the touchline of the clubs Carrington training pitch. The boys could run-off their prematch tension during the game but for the mums and dads, the day was an agonising experience. Its not called a trial for nothing.
Clyde chatted to another parent, a figure known to everyone at the club, whose son, Alex, a gangly centrehalf, had also played in the game.
By the end of the trial, Clyde Richardson and Steve Bruces sons were Manchester United players.
The future Sunderland manager was to become an influential figure in the early years of Richardsons career.
Invitations to the Bruce family home helped ease the young Londoners pangs of homesickness that threatened to derail his burgeoning career.
You could say that he was a bit of a father figure in those days, recalled Richardson.
Him and his wife (Janet) are great people and they have great hearts. I will always have love for the family and hopefully I can repay a debt by doing well for him as manager.
Obviously Im still friends with them and even if I wasnt working under him any more, that would continue.
The gaffer was there at my first ever trial for Man United.
I did well and Steve Bruce spoke to my dad and afterwards. When I moved up to Manchester on my own without my parents Steve Bruce was around with his son and sometimes he would invite me around to his house and take us out for meals.
At first I couldnt really understand the accent because I was from London and didnt really hear people talking with Geordie accents, but I got used to it.
As a young kid in a new city and your parents arent around it can be daunting.
The manager didnt have to do it because he wasnt part of Man United at the time. You never forget that sort of warmth and generosity.
To anyone who had seen the young Richardson play it was no surprise when Man United coaxed him from the West Ham academy.
He had already been courted by his boyhood heroes Arsenal before the Hammers took the lad from Greenwich, London, into their impressive youth team.
But thanks to Bruce and Dave Bushell, head of education and welfare at Man Uniteds academy, the youngster settled well at United and soon the whispers among club insiders was that they had another star on their hands.
Youth team coach Eric Harrison noted at the time: We have an Under-16s lad from London called Kieran Richardson, a left-footer in midfield, and he is a real dribbler who can do a lot that Joe Cole can do. If he gets in the first team, he will really excite.
Ferguson predicted: He is going to be a fantastic player.
Richardson noted: Sir Alex Ferguson was a great manager who would come down and see the kids. He makes time for things like that.
He doesnt just devote himself to the first team. If I hadnt gone there at 14 I wouldnt have been a player like I am today. They really nurtured me and got my game going. But Richardsons position as a left-sided midfielder meant that he faced the daunting prospect of trying to oust his idol, Ryan Giggs .
My footballing heroes as a kid were Ryan Giggs and Ian Wright because I was an Arsenal fan.
So you can imagine how I felt when I went to Man United because I had everything to do with Giggs. It was crazy that in the end I trained with him. It was so bizarre, but you get used to it.
A spell on loan at West Bromwich Albion, managed by Bryan Robson, afforded Richardson space to breath and mature.
On his return to Old Trafford, Ferguson tested his mettle by asking him to play in an emergency left-back role during a Champions League tie against Villareal. He had never played in the position at any level.
I came on early doors and (Villareal striker) Diego Forlan must have spoken to his team-mates at half-time because he knew my game well and told them I wasnt a left-back.
So all that second half they were trying to penetrate down my side, he recalled.
Thats why I got a pat on the back from the gaffer because we kept a clean sheet.
I began to train as a left-back, which meant that I had the best player in the world running at me in training in Cristiano Ronaldo, so obviously youre going to learn quickly because you wont come up against anyone better.
Bruce has also noted Richardsons potential to shine at left-back and the dearth of left-sided players available to Fabio Capello could see Richardson stake a late claim for a place in Englands World Cup squad.
Its a possibility that playing at left-back could be my passport to South Africa, he claimed.
Without doubt Ashley Cole is the best left-back in the world at the moment and everyone knows that. But after Ash there is probably Wayne Bridge and who else If I keep playing well for Sunderland it could be a way into the England squad.
Any way into the squad to represent your country is good. I would gladly grab it with both hands. Richardson, whose international highlight so far was his show-stealing brace of goals against the USA during Sven Goran Erikssons reign, added: People kept saying to me I could be a defender, but it isnt me.
But you can only hear it so many times from good people and great managers. At the moment I am open-minded to it.
Richardson wisely ducks the question who has been the most intimidating manager he has worked under
All of them Robson, Ferguson, Bruce, Keane. All my managers have been winners, he said. They are all connected with Manchester United. When you are at that club winning is bred into you and nothing else. All they want to do is win.
Every manager I have had is from that background.
A lot of people say that when you leave Old Trafford everywhere else will feel like second-best, but when I first came here I felt I was moving from one big club to another big club because of the training facilities, fanbase and stadiums.
Thats probably the only reason I did come here. I had other options but I knew Roy Keane from my Manchester United days and I had a lot of respect for him and I thought that he would help my game progress.
Richardsons decision to sport a plait in his hair has rapidly become the target of jibes from his Sunderland team-mates and the national media. But after facing intimidating characters like Ferguson and Keane, Richardson believes that he can bear anything.
I always had a little plait when I was a kid, so I thought I would put it back in and see what happens, he said.
Im going to grow it and grow it long despite the stick Im getting on Match of the Day. I dont care, its me.
