The two met when the France midfielder was playing for Juventus and they are in regular contact now they are both signed up for the Manchester clubs. And the right-sided attacking midfielder, signed from Fulham in 2015, has been able to count on Paul Pogba as a mentor.
Though it has been a difficult season for City so far, Taylor Richards played a crucial role in what is probably the academy's stand-out result of the campaign. A last-gasp draw against Shakthar in October kept Paul Harsley's team alive in the competition, albeit only just, and when they went a goal down in the return fixture back in Manchester it appeared that the club's Youth League campaign, of which so much was hoped at the start of the season, was heading for the rocks.
But two goals from Richards, one a fine curling effort, inside the first 20 minutes of the second half turned the game on its head, with City going on to win 4-1 with further goals from regular scorers Benjamin Garre and Lorenzo Gonzalez. Manchester City are still three points behind Lyon and six behind Hoffenheim with two games to play, but Richards, speaking to the City website after his decisive display, believes all is not yet lost.
“Qualification is still on," he said. "It’s a tough task but never say never. We are all going to work hard after the international break and get back into training and keep pushing on.”
Richards may well have benefitted from a word of advice from Pogba. The two have been friends since they were introduced when the France midfielder was at Juventus, and they are in regular contact to this day.
"Paul's like my big brother up here," he said recently. "He always helps me. He gives me advice on what to do and if I have a rubbish game then he tells me. "He has [been to watch me and] tells me if I need to run more but that's just Paul.
"I feel like when I'm with him he gives me inspiration to go to the top and to be the best player I can be because I don't want to leave anything behind. I just want to be at the top and he shows it's there for you if you want to get it. "When he was at Juventus he came down and I met him and since then we've always been close. Sometimes I go over to his house for dinner."
It would be unfair right now to expect the youngster to replicate the kind of first-team exploits displayed by either Phil Foden at City or Jadon Sancho, who left the Blues for Dortmund.
There had also been questions about his attitude at times, but after returning to fitness and now form, Richards admits he had been "lazy" in the past but is aiming to put that behind him.
"It was a slow start to be honest -- not playing and not being the Taylor I was before," he said. "It was my first real injury. It was quite hard to take but with other people doing well you feel like you could push on yourself a bit.
"But it happens in the game. My family was there for me and my teammates and now I'm here on the pitch and I'm just trying to push on.
"Now I just don't want to leave anything on the pitch. I run until I feel like I can't run anymore and that's what I've added to my game. Last time I wasn't really running but now I feel like I work much harder than I did before.
"To be honest I was a bit lazy. Now I feel like, since the injury, it wasn't a good place where I was. Now I just don't want to leave anything on the pitch, I want to go for it."

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