Micah Richards has confirmed he intends to sign a contract extension with Manchester City "very soon", despite interest from Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United .

The Birmingham-born defender, who is a certainty to start at right-back for England in their crucial European Championship qualifier with Israel at Wembley on Saturday, maintains he is happy to remain at Eastlands and continue his development under Sven-Goran Eriksson.

"I am very happy at City," Richards said. "Hopefully we will have something signed very soon. I am just waiting for my Dad who is in Africa setting up a soccer school. We have got talks with City as soon as he gets back in the next two weeks.

"To me the most important thing now for my England chances with Euro 2008 coming up is to be playing week in, week out. If I am at City then I am hopefully going to be doing that, so it will be the best thing for me."

Richards has seen team-mates such as Shaun Wright-Phillips, Sylvain Distin and Joey Barton all leave the club to pursue their ambitions. However, Richards is excited by the prospects at the club following the takeover of former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"It is an exciting time at the club," he said. "We have a new owner and a big-name manager who has attracted big-name players and we are aiming for the top ten at least."

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