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15th September 2015
11:31am BST
While Totti is set for a reduced role, one of the World Cup winner's contemporaries, Gigi Buffon, remains an integral part of the Juventus side that reached last season's Champions League final.
Richardson speaks of how privileged he feels to have watched not only Buffon's professional debut for Parma in 1995 - in which the 17-year-old kept out a talented AC Milan outfit - but also the goalkeeper's Italy debut - another clean sheet against Russia.
"We were lucky to be there at the Tardini the day he made his debut. He was 17 years old, and Apparently [Nevio] Scala, the manager at the time, had told him the day before that he was going to play, which was kind of ridiculous.
"I think their keeper at the time was Luca Bucci, who was Italy’s second string at the time, but he went with Buffon, who nobody knew much about at the time except for the fact that some of his relatives had played different sports.
"He had a blinding game, and didn’t concede (it finished 0-0). Then funnily enough we were there when he debuted for Italy in minus-10 degrees in a play-off with Russia, and he kept a clean sheet then too. He’s extraordinary."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UAPhaWb0eA
Both Totti and Buffon seem to have a place within calcio's notion of the bandiera, a player who stays at one club for so long that he comes to represent the DNA of the side, even though Buffon began his career at Parma before moving to Juventus.
Richardson speculates that the lack of such a figure could be one reason for AC Milan's struggles, despite efforts to recycle club legends like Pippo Inzaghi and Clarence Seedorf as managers.
"They've always liked to keep one or two ‘senators’, as they called them, within the dressing room. When they got rid of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva they also got rid of a whole load of other players with Nesta and Gattuso effectively retiring.
"As much as they lost the actual talent of Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic, it was the spirit or identity or character of what Nesta and Gattuso represented, and since then they haven’t really been Milan."
In fact, there is an argument that Zlatan is rarely missed by his previous clubs as much as you might think, despite his unquestionable talent on the pitch.
"Strangely I’m not sure I’d like him at my club, because I think he does things to a team," says Richardson.
"If you have a well-run team and put Zlatan in it, it completely skews the whole mechanics of the side, and Inter would be a great example.
"Technically he was their best player, but they really improved when he left and they became a team. Ibrahimovic’s dominance off the field is as big a factor as on it, where his mates have to play, he has to get the parking space he wants or the salad bar he wants or whatever Zlatan story it is."
So, is he upset that we haven't had a chance to see the Swede in the Premier League?
"It would have been fascinating to see, and maybe one day we will see him in the Premier League, possibly at Stoke by the way things are going.
"I don’t know if it would suit his style, although if Berbatov can do it then why not Zlatan. People who maybe take a slightly esoteric interest in football – he likes doing what he does and I’m not quite sure how much he enjoys the rest of it. But I think Zlatan’s brilliant, and he’s briliant value on and off the pitch and great to watch.
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