10 Boyhood Arsenal Fans The Gunners Should Have Signed

Nobody would go near Micah Richards with a ten-foot bargepole now, if they had any sense.

Last season was a traumatic campaign for the former England international - part of the worst Aston Villa side in living memory, the club sunk without a trace and the club captain was lambasted by all sections of the club’s support. Having broke onto the scene ten years ago, he will have hoped to have been a Champions League regular by now at a club like…. hmm, perhaps Arsenal?

There was a time however, when Richards was a hot commodity. A talented defender in his youth, he stood out at Eastlands before the influx of wealth in 2008 and to his credit, managed to stand his ground despite the arrival of a host of multi-million pound rivals for his spot. A Premier League winner during the 11/12 season, during which he made 37 appearances in all competitions, Richards had shown himself to be an exciting right-back who had shown no qualms in deputising for the more experienced Pablo Zabaleta.

Indeed, Richards has been linked with Arsenal - the club of his youth - for years only for a move never to materialise. With his career having hit the skids lately, culminating in not only a desperate Villa Park faithful wanting him for the upcoming Championship season, it’s fair to say that his potential Emirates career will never happen. But had he spent the last ten years being nurtured by Arsene Wenger rather than being tossed across a multitude of managers, his progress probably wouldn’t have been hampered in such a devastating way.