Ex-Aston Villa star phones talkSPORT to explain infamous training ground fights

The ex-Manchester United and Sunderland man was name-dropped by Bent in a conversation with talkSPORT drivetime host Andy Goldstein about training ground bust-ups, with the former striker mentioning a minor 'scrimmage' with Lee Cattermole during their time together at Sunderland.

After briefly mentioning Richardson as someone he recalled being involved in an altercation, the former winger called the show to give his version of events.

Calling talkSPORT Drive, Richardson said: "The reason I'm calling is that I was in my house with the radio on and heard Benty saying about me fighting.

"I thought I'd ring up and clarify it because I don't want everyone thinking that I'm a bad egg.

"I'm not a trouble-maker, I'll tell you the story now.

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"I signed for Aston Villa and in the first month I'd had a fight with two geezers on the training pitch.

"I don't know why, they were cool guys as well!

"The first one was [Karim] El Ahmadi - it was handbags stuff, nothing serious. We had a little argument in training so had a tear-up, normal stuff.

"Then, about three weeks later, I was in a challenge with Leo [Leandro Bacuna] and Leo was going all mad so I had another little scrap-up.

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"But after that we became good friends, all of us. It was nothing serious.

"I was ringing up because I'm no bad egg, Benty."

Bent replied: "The question is always 'can you remember any of your teammates having a tear-up?' and in all the years that I was playing football the only fights I saw involved you!"

Richardson joined Aston Villa in June 2014 and spent two years in the Midlands, making 41 appearances before leaving the the club as they got relegated from the Premier League.