Birmingham City Football Club have joined the race to sign Micah Richards.

The 21-year-old defender has failed to live up to the early promised he showed at Manchester City, and is struggling to nail down a regular place in Mark Hughes’s starting eleven.

Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur are known admirers of the powerful defender, and the Daily Star Sunday claim Birmingham are also willing to enter the race for his signature.

Alex McLeish will be given a transfer kitty of around £40million in January, and he plans to spend most of it, including around £8million for Richards.

However, Hughes has gone on record recently to state that the England international very much has a future in the blue half of Manchester, and is unlikely to encourage a sale.

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