Long before Manchester United were due to host Manchester City at Old Trafford, Richard was already thinking several steps ahead.
Aurélio Pereira of Sporting had yet to give a clear answer on whether he would take charge of City academy, and until that uncertainty was resolved, the responsibility for shaping the academy remained firmly with Richard.
To prepare for the future, he had already entrusted Marina Granovskaia with a crucial task: identifying and recruiting young players whose names, he believed, would one day echo across the footballing world.
Compared to the early days of his tenure, City's scouting operation had evolved dramatically. When Richard first arrived in 1994, scouting depended largely on personal contacts, fragmented reports, and even manual record-keeping. Information was slow to gather and even slower to update.
Now, everything was different.
