The Clarets will be back in the second tier next season after their relegation was confirmed following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.
It’s been a miserable campaign for Vincent Kompany’s men, who have collected just 24 points from their 37 games – with one game still to go against Nottingham Forest.
But given how well Burnley performed in the Championship last time out, winning the title with 101 points, Richards expects his former Manchester City teammate to lead the Clarets back to the top flight.
“I think they should keep the same team, work on the same things that they’ve worked on this year but maybe tweak little things to make them a little bit more robust for the Premier League.
“If I’m looking at Kompany and what they can do next year in the Championship, I’m expecting them to bounce straight back up just because of what he did previously.
“But I agree with Alan that he’s got to adapt to certain things.”
While Richards shared some sympathy with Burnley’s oft-criticised summer recruitment, where almost £100m was spent on 15 new players, many of them youngsters, the 35-year-old was highly critical with their style of play.
“They had a big turnaround in players, they had loads of loans that they had to send back and they thought they had to spend that money to try and stay up,” he added.
“They had too much inexperience though and basically you can’t play that way in the Premier League.
“They had that little run for five or six games recently where they looked a lot better, but for me it was always out of hope – because Vincent Kompany is a good mate and I text him last night to say unlucky and what not – but I think naivety is the word I’d use for them this season.”
