'I took that personally' - Micah Richards reveals bust-up with Jamie Carragher over scathing 'not giving enough' criticism

Richards and Carragher are often seen sharing light-hearted moments on television as the two ex-England internationals work together as pundits on Sky Sports and CBS. However, the former Manchester City defender has opened up on confronting Carragher when he first entered the studios as a pundit shortly after he retired from professional football in 2019.

Richards left the Cityzens in 2015 to join Aston Villa, where he spent the last four seasons of his career. During his time in the West Midlands, they suffered a thumping 6-0 defeat against Liverpool, after which Carragher made a scathing attack live on TV where he raised questions over the technical ability and commitment of the Villa players.

Speaking to the Mirror, Richards said: "I work with Jamie Carragher now. Carragher, I remember a game we played against Liverpool at home and Liverpool battered us 6-0. "Carragher basically said, 'I wouldn't take one of those players. They are not good enough and they are not giving enough'. I took that personally.

"When I started doing punditry, I was like, 'I understand you can critique my performance in terms of not doing well, that's fine'. You have to take that. But when it's like, 'You’re not working hard enough’ or, 'You’re not giving any effort’, you don’t know that! You don’t know that, so you can’t say that!"

He added: "But it’s all fun and games at the end of the day. I had a conversation with him after that, and he said: 'I didn’t mean it like that’. He was just in the moment and the emotion of what he was talking about. To be honest, that season, we were poor for Villa, so I can understand why he was putting the knife in. Players, generally, are fine as long as it’s not personal. I try not to make it personal, certainly while I am doing my punditry."

Richards and Carragher are set to continue working together as pundits in future with this incident firmly behind them.