As Micah Richards prepares to sit on the sofa, I wonder if the other end will tip towards the ceiling. Thighs like a sprinter, a rugby player’s shoulders, the chest and biceps of a boxer: he is huge. Then he laughs. It’s the ready giggle of an artless lad. Richards is both boy and man. He thinks people tend to forget that. “I’m just 21 but because I’ve been around a long time, everyone has it in their minds that I’m 25, 26,” he says.

Harsh diagnoses have been made on a footballer who, if examined differently, might be accepted as having growing pains. His on-field performance has been kicked one way by critics, his off-field activities the other. Mistakes have been exaggerated. “It’s as if every time the papers can get a dig in on me, they do,” he says. Few have had the build-’em-up-knock-’em-down treatment so young.

Richards was 18 years and 144 days old when, in November 2006, he became the youngest defender to be capped by England. He was still living in digs in Stockport with another Manchester City youth player. Shortly after his 19th birthday he became the club’s first teenage captain. He drove home from the stadium in a VW Golf. “It was ridiculous. How do you deal with it? I don’t know, it’s weird,” he reflects. This is a gentle, ordinary lad, who had to get his head round Sir Bobby Robson saying he could emulate Bobby Moore, at an age some are still at school.

“It was easier when I was 18,” he admits. “I think where it went a bit pear-shaped for me was that I was playing every week, not thinking about anything except my game, then the papers started building me up to be a £20m, £25m player. I wasn’t worth that. On ability, maybe, but not as a player. Then you drop off and it goes the other way. Last season I read I was worth £5m.” Richards laughs. “So the season before, £25m. The next season, £5m. Surely there’s got to be some sort of balance. Sometimes it just seems ridiculous.”

International recognition went as quickly as it arrived and that’s hard to take. Outstanding in his initial appearances and a goalscorer at Wembley against Israel, Richards played in 11 consecutive England games before Steve McClaren was sacked. He was an unused substitute in Fabio Capello’s first match in charge before missing three squads through injury. Then? “A lot of people say I’ve been dropped by England but it’s not like that. Since Capello I’ve not played, I’ve not even had one minute,” he says. “In Capello’s first game, when I was flying, Wes Brown played and I was on the bench, furious. I was, ‘What have I done wrong to not be playing?’ Then when I came back from injury and wasn’t even in the squad, Wes was in the Champions League final with Man United. Glen Johnson was flying. So you can understand Capello’s thinking, fair enough. What angered me was people started saying I’d lost my form and had been dropped when the truth was just that Wes and Glen were doing well.

“It’s been nigh on impossible getting back [in the England squad]. Even when Wes was injured, Capello’s just taken one right-back and named an extra centre-half. It’s like ... what do I need to do to get back in? And that sort of knocks a player’s confidence. I’m not a confidence player but when you don’t get in even when you’re playing well for your club, you question yourself a little.”

Richards’ hunger to recover his England place is formidable. He was his country’s captain and stand-out player at this summer’s European Under-21 championship and is playing regularly at right-back for City, having spent most of the 2008-09 season at centre-half. He hopes both factors will influence Capello.

“I’m determined to get back in,” he says. “I’m not one of these players who’s happy being on the sidelines. I believe I’ve got the ability to be playing and that’s why I got in the England team in the first place. To not even have played one minute under Capello hurts me.

“I’ve got to bide my time, do as well as I can for City and wait for my chance. I’ve never spoken to him [Capello]. He’s not told me what I need to improve. I’d love to get to the World Cup, but I don’t think his plans are for me in this World Cup. The thing I think has stopped me is my position. One minute right-back, the next centre-half: I reckon if I’d been playing right-back for City consistently, I would be playing for England. Right-back’s where I’m happiest. Centre-half’s ... not boring ... but you’re not involved so much and I love bursting up the wing and joining in the play. When you go from right-back to centre-half it’s difficult as there are different positions you take up on the pitch and one little mistake in positioning can cost a goal. That’s something I definitely have to get into my game but I’m 21, learning my trade, and it will come with experience.”

Defensive discipline is Capello’s concern. Richards was staunch as City opened their season with four straight clean sheets and in a win over Arsenal gave the kind of muscular, marauding performance that makes him sometimes unstoppable. In the Manchester derby, though, he was taken back to school by that genius of positioning, Michael Owen. United’s winner came when Richards, correctly, tucked into a central position to help City defend two high balls but then failed to spot Owen peel wide into free space in the third phase.

“The United game ... you switch off for one second and Owen scores,” he says. “It just shows you. Right now I tend to rely on my pace and power a bit too much. If I can add more concentration into my game it will make me a better package. Mark Hughes is very good at giving the defence drills and I’ve told him [concentration and positioning] is an area I want to improve. He’s said, ‘You’ve got the ability, it’s just about fine-tuning your game’.”

Richards’ honesty is endearing. Face-to-face he is friendly, unaffected. “I’m not letting anything get me down,” he says. It characterises his approach to life. He supports a number of Manchester charities and helped his father, Lincoln, a big influence, found a football orphanage in Ethiopia. His favourite company is the gang of mates he grew up with in Chapeltown, Leeds. “They’re always cracking jokes the way it used to be and treat me just like a normal lad — though they expect me to get the bills when we go shopping and get something to eat.”

In all, he is far from the stereotypical Cristal-quaffing, ego-puffing Premier League player. “Everyone says, ‘Why aren’t you arrogant like the rest of the footballers?’ But why should I be?” he asks. Some snipe at his fondness for bling and cars [he swapped the VW for a Bentley] but he argues: “When I was playing for England regularly I was driving a nice car and wearing nice jewellery and nobody had anything to say then. I didn’t come from a rich place. Chapeltown is not a ‘nice’ area. I’ve come from not having anything so when I get stuff I tend to enjoy it more than maybe a normal person would. Some people think I enjoy it too much but they have the wrong perception of me.”

Another misconception involves his club manager. Like everybody at City, where they’ve known Richards since he arrived as a shy, well-mannered 14-year-old, Hughes has affection for the player. A training spat prompted rumours of a rift but, as Richards points out, he has started more games than any player during Hughes’ reign. “So there’s nothing wrong between us,” he says. “He’s been great with me. There was a bit in The Sun about us not liking each other, which was wrong. When something doesn’t go right in training you can clash, [it] happens everywhere. I got photographed and it was built into something it wasn’t.”

At Birmingham today, City intend to break a sequence of draws that has seen them slip to sixth and Richards hopes, with an England squad named next weekend, Capello is watching. A reminder of the regard in which his talent is held is that adidas has chosen him, alongside Steven Gerrard and Michael Ballack, to premiere the 10th edition of its famous Predator boot. New technology, involving a light but strong rigid spine along the shoe’s centre, claims to increase ball-striking power. Players will wear the boots for the first time today. “It’s brilliant being part of City this season. In every position there’s competition and players being linked with the club and it makes you work to keep your place. It’s how I’m going to improve.” Disproving critics, improving himself: the route is not easy but Richards knows the way ahead.

Riding the Richards rollercoaster

Jun 24, 1988 Birmingham-born but raised in Leeds
Jul 2001 Joins Manchester City from Oldham aged 14
Oct 22, 2005 Makes his debut as a substitute in 1-0 defeat by Arsenal at Highbury
Feb 12, 2006 First senior start in 3-2 home win over Charlton. A week later scores first senior goal, against Aston Villa in the FA Cup fifth-round. Swears on television in live post-match interview
Apr 21, 2006 Captains City in the second leg of the FA Youth Cup final
May 2006 Named City’s Young Player of the Year for the 2005-06 season
Nov 15, 2006 Becomes the youngest defender to be capped by England, against Holland in Amsterdam
Sep 2007 Starts new season strongly. Named Premier League Player of the Month for August
Sep 16, 2007 Becomes youngest City captain, leading them to a 1-0 home victory against Aston Villa
Oct 11, 2007 Signs new five-year, £45,000-a-week deal
Feb 28, 2008 Ruled out for rest of season after cartilage surgery
Jul 11, 2009 Contracts swine flu while on holiday in Cyprus