Micah Richards has revealed why he and Arsenal legend Ian Wright fell out after the latter ‘dug him out’ on TV.
Appearing alongside Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer on the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast, the former Aston Villa captain revealed that he and Wright have had some unaddressed beef in the past.
Way back in 2015, Wright appeared on Match of the Day and took a swipe at the right-back’s performance during a recent defeat against Norwich.
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At the time, he stated: “That’s the captain. He’s got to make more of an effort than that.
“These are the reasons they are going down,” he concluded in his post-match analysis.
Then 27, the former Manchester City star hit back and took to Twitter to air his grievances,
He wrote: “I respected you as a player! And you [are] not a bad pundit but talking about me like that isn’t on!!”
In a further tweet, he said: “What has captain got to do with it? I can take constructive criticism but not this.
Reminiscing about the incident, Richards revealed that he still hasn’t forgiven the 59-year-old for calling him out on MOTD.
“I’ve still not forgiven Wrighty anyways,” he told co-hosts Lineker and Shearer.
“He dug me out on Match of The Day… when he was a pundit. He dug me out!”
Linekar asked whether the now 34-year-old deserved the public pummelling, to which he laughed and replied, “Probably”.
“I had a ding-dong with him. Oh my, it was going back and forth - I’ve deleted the tweets now.”
“But when I first come [to the punditry career] I’m on with Ian Wright, aren’t I?
“I’d never been so nervous in my life, because what do you say? Has he remembered? Shall I bring it up? Shall I try make light of the situation?”
Lineker then asked whether the situation was ever brought up with Wright, to which a firm “no, I left it” was given.
The 62-year-old then vowed to bring up the archaic disagreement next time the three of them are in the vicinity together.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Shearer said that although Wright is a ‘great lad’ he was ‘horrible’ to play against in his heyday.
“Wrighty used to say stuff that you could never repeat,” he said.
“I love Wrighty now, he’s a great lad, we all do, but he was top of the s***housery.
“He was horrible to play against. In your ear all the time, saying this, saying that - he was nasty,” he concluded.
You can listen to the Match of the Day Top 10 episode on BBC Sounds or on BBC iPlayer now.
Topics: Match Of The Day, Micah Richards, Ian Wright, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Aston Villa
Ella Scott