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City ready to offer defender new deal
Manchester City, 10:25, October 23, 2009 ,
Mark Hughes is set to offer defender Micah Richards a new deal after confirming he is a part of his long-term plans at Man City.
Richards has been linked with a move away from Eastlands in recent weeks after losing his place in City's starting line-up to Pablo Zabaleta.
But the England international insisted earlier in the week that he had no plans to leave and Hughes has revealed that he wants the youngster to follow Steven Ireland and Nedum Onuoha in pledging their futures to the club, with a new five-year contract reported to be on the table for Richards.
Hughes told the Manchester Evening News: "I'm not quite sure where it came from that Micah might leave. He is a big part of what we are doing here.
"I have said for a number of weeks when asked about players' futures that we are in the process of building and creating a squad with players of the right quality, so we are not about to tear the squad apart and let good players leave.
"It's about making sure we have quality across the board, and Micah is part of that."
Richards will start at right back against Fulham on Sunday with Zabaleta ruled out by a one-match ban, but Brazilian star Robinho will be out for another two weeks after suffering a setback in his battle to recover from the ankle injury that has kept him sidelined for six weeks.