Micah Richards has a transfer story which nearly saw Emmanuel Adebayor join Aston Villa in 2015, while under Tim Sherwood.
Richards became captain of the Villains following his signing from Manchester City, and the departure of Fabian Delph.
That season, Villa made 12 signings as up to 30 players departed the club.
With the sale of Christian Benteke, the talisman of the team had gone left a huge gap to be filled.
Both Jordan Ayew and Rudy Gestede came in with the task of filling that void, but Sherwood clearly had another name on his mind.
Richards was at the club throughout these dealings and has opened up about the situation.
What has Micah Richards said about Emmanuel Adebayor?
At the time, the Togo international was falling out of favour at Tottenham Hotspur, after Sherwood had left.
Under the former Blackburn Rovers captain, the striker had scored 14 and assisted 5 in a productive season.
This form saw Sherwood attempt to bring the former Arsenal and Real Madrid man to Villa Park.
Talking on The Rest is Football podcast, Richards recollected on that time in his career.
Discussing the move he said: “We got Adebayor, he came and he did his medical, all but signed the papers. There’s even a picture of him with the shirt.”
It seems that the deal was all but done but never materialised. But what was the reason?
You would never guess why: “The reason he didn’t sign was that he had a dream that he was making the wrong decision.
“A higher power told him that he was making the wrong move to come to Aston Villa, so he didn’t turn up the next day.”
In the end Adebayor joined Crystal Palace, scored once and was released after a season.
Not that it resulted any better for Villa and Richards who were relegated the same season.
