Micah Richards admits it would've been easier for manager Mark Hughes to have bombed him out of Manchester City.
"I was definitely scared the club might not want me to stay," he told the Mail on Sunday. "I wasn't playing to form and, if I'm being perfectly honest, I thought they might bring someone in during the summer.
"I hit rock bottom against Forest. The newspapers had pages that week about how I wasn't up to scratch.
"Overnight, everyone had seen me as some sort of figurehead. All these invitations to premieres and things like that came flooding in. At that age, you want to do everything you can. People say you are the new big thing and you want to be seen.
"Only as time goes on, you realise there are things you can't do. I still find it weird to be the centre of attention. People think I'm arrogant but I am shy and sometimes don't know how to act.
"It's difficult if someone 30 or 40 years old comes to you for advice or to ask your opinion. I'm young, so why should I know better than them.
"Things were hard and I went to speak to the manager. I told him I felt I was better suited to playing at right-back, where I'd done well earlier for City and England, rather than at centre-half or left-back where I'd been playing.
"To be fair to the manager, he actually listened to me and changed things around to lift my confidence. I'll never forget that."
Richards added: "The good thing is Mark knows my ability, that I'm as good as anyone when I'm at the top of my game. So I thank him for believing in me.
"My difficulty at centre-half was not having anything to do, then (he snaps his fingers) losing concentration. You always have to be switched on at right-back and that helps me."
