Brighton have completed the signing of 18-year-old midfielder Taylor Richards from Manchester City.
Brighton & Hove News reported that the England underage international has joined the south coast club on undisclosed terms.
Richards was brought to Manchester City at 14 by club scout Joe Shields, who also discovered Jadon Sancho, as noted in The Independent.
Although Richards never played for Manchester City’s first team, he has made an impression for the club’s underage sides over the last three years, and Jack Pitt-Brooke has described him in The Independent as having “everything he needs to be a top player“.
He scored five goals in four matches in the final stage of the Under-18 Premier League two years ago and has played in the UEFA Youth League nine times, scoring five goals in that competition.
Last season he found the net three times in 15 Premier League 2 games for Manchester City’s reserve team under Paul Harsley and he featured in the club’s run to the FA Youth Cup final.
He has come up against senior players in the EFL Trophy, having played four times in the competition last season, and ended the campaign with 10 goals from 29 games in total.
Richards has won three caps for the England under-17s, although he was not in the squad that won the Under-17 World Cup two years ago.
He is seven months younger than Phil Foden, another attack-minded midfielder from Manchester City’s academy. However, the 19-year-old is much further ahead in his development than Richards, having already made 36 appearances for the first team and scored seven goals.
Foden made his first-team debut at just 17 years and 177 days and had a Premier League winner’s medal before his 18th birthday. By contrast, the closest Richards has come to the first team was his inclusion among the substitutes in the second leg of last season’s Carabao Cup semi-final against Burton Albion. Despite Pep Guardiola’s men leading 9-0 from the first leg, Richards still didn’t make it off the bench at the Pirelli Stadium.
Richards never managed to break into the Manchester City first-team like Foden has, and even the latter is still feeding off scraps under Guardiola, with only three Premier League starts since his competition debut against Tottenham in December 2017.
Richards was never likely to feature prominently at the Etihad Stadium in 2019/20, but having seen fellow academy players Ian Poveda, Eric Garcia, Adrian Bernabe, Felix Nmecha and Claudio Gomes all getting first-team minutes last season, he may feel disappointed not to have been given his chance by the Premier League champions.
He would very likely have needed a move away to have a chance of playing first-team football next season, but to have let him join Brighton altogether without first giving him an opportunity on loan seems like a harsh move from Manchester City.
Manchester City fans, are you disappointed to see a young talent like Richards leaving the club or would he have ever made it at the Etihad? Let us know what you think by commenting below!
