Great Escape hero Kieran Richardson lifts lid on West Brom spell, England debut and return to Old Trafford

Former Manchester United winger Kieran Richardson spoke exclusively to Ladbrokes Fanzone about keeping West Brom in the Premier League, his England debut and return to Old Trafford.

Click on the link for his thoughts on Jadon Sancho in the first part and all things Manchester United in the second.

West Brom move was perfect move for me

The West Brom move, for me, was perfect timing. I’d just played in a cup game for Man United, and I’d had an absolute stinker. I needed to go out on loan because there was nothing going on at United for me at that time. My confidence was low and I think Sir Alex Ferguson knew it was the right time for me to go.

I had two options: Norwich or West Brom. Quite simply, I chose West Brom because of the Bryan Robson connection, you know, how much of a great player and leader at the club. Both clubs were in a relegation battle and Nigel Worthington was the Norwich manager at the time. I actually ended up playing and scoring against them that season, as well.

I went there in January and would still say, to this day, I had the best time ever. Birmingham is a great city. I loved living in the Mailbox and I was playing for a great club like West Bromwich Albion. Everything about it was just amazing for me. I just think back to some of the names we had around the place at the time; the manager, Kevin Campbell, Zoltan Gera. You know, it was like a family. We stuck together and we knew what we had to do.

I came in late in the January window and ended up playing in central midfield. I had always been a left-winger for the most part at United, but I went in to West Brom and played in the middle, and I was loving it. Going from not playing at Man United, to playing week in, week out, still in the Premier League, it was just an unbelievable experience for me.

I was playing well, too. With every game, I was growing in confidence. I’m sure any footballer will tell you, everything is confidence based. Everything is in your head. When you’re confident, you can’t be stopped.

“Imagine if we stayed up, dad…”

Do you know what it was for me, at West Brom? The changing room. That team spirit was unbelievable. Man United’s dressing room was great, but I was a young kid at the time, so I wasn’t really in and around the first-team’s dressing room that much. So this was my first real experience of going into a first-team dressing room, and being around senior players. We had so many characters in there, honestly, it was incredible. Jonathan Greening, Geoff Horsfield, Kevin Campbell, you know, they were all down-to-earth guys, and we all knew what the aim was – to stay in the Premier League.

Of course, there was a massive game which kept us in with a chance of staying up. I remember it fully because I wasn’t able to play in it. I was in a hotel in London, watching it live, West Brom away at Manchester United, who had sent me out on loan. Robert Earnshaw scored a penalty to get us a draw at Old Trafford. I was watching every pass like a hawk because I was so desperate for us to take something from the game, knowing I’d be back for the final game of the season.

We all knew we had to run through brick walls for each other, to give ourselves half a chance of achieving something special. And that’s exactly what happened, on that last day against Portsmouth.

I remember the night before that game, I spoke with my dad…

“Imagine if we stayed up, dad? If things go our way…”

My dad just told me that if we did pull it off, and I had a good game, I’d be remembered forever at the club. And things happened to go our way. I scored, as well. And any West Brom fan knows what the rest of that day looks like. All the supporters running onto the pitch, it was just crazy. It was definitely one of the best experiences and best times of my life, for sure.

How I celebrated that day? For me, honestly, I went out partying. There’s no two ways about it. There was so much relief, we’d worked so hard in such a short space of time to turn things around. I just let my hair down because, during my whole time with the club, I just kept my head down and focused on the challenge. I wasn’t really going out like that, so that day was a good opportunity for me to go out and relax with my family and friends. It was a good time.

And from that, came my England call-up…

Man United legends got in my ear – I wanted to stay at West Brom

As soon as that 2004-05 season ended, I knew I wanted to sign for West Brom, at least for another season. Bryan Robson wanted to sign me and I wanted to go. How could I not want to go? The club had done so much for me.

But I remember going back to Manchester United in pre-season and Sir Alex Ferguson had told me that he didn’t want me to leave. He got a few of the senior players to get in my ear and tell me to stay, that I was going to play more games, and all of that kind of thing. But, like anything at Man United, there are  no guarantees. They were the biggest club in the world at that time, and when you’ve got these huge names in your ear, it’s hard to say no. I don’t regret the decision, because I don’t really have any regrets. But I did want to go, I can’t lie. I had to be heavily persuaded not to go.

I found out about England call-up on Sky Sports News!

I do sometimes wonder whether that call-up would have happened if West Brom had gone down that season. Things could have been so much different. Saying that, though, I was playing so well, for West Brom, and I remember Sven [England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson] coming to a few of the under-21 games to watch me, and at that time, my confidence was just through the roof. So it may have come anyway, but if I’m being honest, I’d probably say the Great Escape going in West Brom’s – and my – favour propelled me into the England set-up. No one really wants a loser, or a relegated player, coming into the international set-up at England, really. I don’t think I’d have played for England if we had gone down.

I didn’t even know I was in the England squad until I looked on Sky Sports and saw my name come up on that yellow ticker at the bottom of the screen. That’s the crazy thing about it. I remember I was in my mum’s house in south London, and it came up at the bottom of Sky Sports: England squad…Kieran Richardson.

When I saw my name there, I then got a text from England – the whole thing was just mind-boggling. When you look at how that season went for me, having a crap time at Man United, having an absolute stinker of a cup game and being sent out on loan to a team in a relegation fight in January, I always say God’s timing is perfect timing, and that move really was the making of me.

Then I’m travelling to America with England, and what’s even more crazy is that I wasn’t even supposed to be starting against the USA. Stewart Downing was supposed to be starting, but he got injured the day before the game, and that’s when Sven told me I was going to be starting.

When I was at West Brom, I was on free-kicks. I was very confident when it came to free-kicks; that was always kind of my thing. I remember practising free-kicks in our final training session before the USA game and they were going all over the place – I couldn’t hit the target at all! But then the game came, and inside four minutes we got a free-kick in a perfect spot for me. I remember Jermaine Jenas looking over at me as if to say ‘you’re not having this…I saw you in training yesterday, you can’t be standing over this!’. But it was in the perfect spot for a left-footer, I just said to him “I’ve got this.”

Scoring for your country is an unbelievable experience. I can’t describe the feeling. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friendly or what…it was the best moment I could ever imagine. And then I scored again in that game. Two goals in the first half of my first game for my country. It was just absolutely crazy.

I came off the pitch and my phone obviously went crazy. My dad was there, in Chicago, which was great. I don’t actually talk about it all that much, really. Like, my two kids, they don’t even know about these things. Alright, they’ve seen pictures of me playing and whatever, but I’d finished playing before my girls could really understand what it was all about. That does upset me a bit, to be honest, because they didn’t get to come and see their dad, the footballer. After that England debut, I can’t really remember sitting down and talking to my dad, but it was just an unbelievable feeling, for a young man to be playing for his country – forget scoring – was a dream for me, and I happened to fulfil it.

I returned to United as a full international but was straight back in the reserves’ changing room…until Gary Neville came to get me!

I think it’s fair to say everything ramped up with me after that summer – expectations, and all of that kind of thing. How could that not be the case, though? The guy who basically came from nowhere, who wasn’t getting a look in at the start of the season, who then helped West Brom stay in the Premier League and went on to play for England straight after – how could the pressure not be on?

I left Man United’s reserves’ changing room in January and came back a full international. It’s mind-boggling. The funny thing about it all, is that when I went back for my first day with Man United, I got to Carrington and walked straight back into the reserves’ changing room!

I remember Gary Neville coming in to see me…

“Mate, what are you doing in here?”

“I dunno…I haven’t spoken to the boss yet…”

I still had that respect for how things were. I didn’t know what the manager was thinking or what was going on.

“No, no, no. You come out of this changing room, mate. You’ve got to come into the first-team changing room!”

But I felt a bit in limbo, to be honest with you. I felt like I deserved to be in that first-team dressing room, of course. But I didn’t really know where I was going. Yeah, that first day back at training, that morning really brought me back down to earth after a crazy summer!

It’s funny, because of where I was at in my career at the start of that 2004-05 season, there was no mention of an England call-up bonus, or anything like that, in my contract – no way! I only put that sort of thing in when I signed a new deal that summer.