Ward was always one of my favourite players but clearly has issues with pace, which is understandable. Clyne has the odd decent game - both can be rated as perhaps fair or adequate but by no means good. Richards may not be a natural Right Back but if he can defend and has more pace than the other two (which I suspect he has) then why not? He needs to be tried there - although I do believe he has played Right Back at several times in his career. He's likely to be better than the other two.

Red and Blue Army!

Hoping Richards is through his injury issues.

Did you type that with a straight face?

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is especially useful going forwards, but Richards (not unlike Ferguson) was touted as being able to play across the back four when we signed him, so should certainly be at least an option for the right back position.

His obvious role right now is as cover for Anderson and Guehi, but if he can stay fit and get a run of impressive performances under his belt in any position then he will be harder to drop. I can imagine him stepping in for five or ten games at centre back, and then seeing Clyne or Ward dropped and Richards moved to right back once the first choice centre backs return, but only if he does well enough.

Right now, I haven't seen anything that places Richards ahead of Clyne or Ward if all three are available. I think it's easy to forget that churning out 6/10 performances at right back in the Premier league every week is a very difficult thing to do. Replacing the veterans will not be as easy as some suggest, and upgrading on them is tough.

Spence is an interesting one, but let's remember that he is completely unproven at premier league level, and only really has one good championship season behind him, and that was a surprise to his parent club who, having seen him up close for a fair while were happy to loan him to a rival.

Ultimately, as has been the case for years now, an upgrade at right back would be nice, but nowhere near as important as in other positions.

Richards has played FB in the Bundeslige, so can’t be that bad. I believe he is a very good player and do not understand playing Tomkins ahead of him. When he had a run of games, was Playerof the month ( I know, not that difficult this season )

I would be playing Richards in the middle with Guehi and Andersen at RB if I wanted to play all three .