Happy Birthday Ian Wright!
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| Wrighty celebrating one of his 185 goals for Arsenal |
Arsenal’s second highest goalscorer of all time Ian Wright is 56 today. It doesn’t like that long ago that he was scoring for fun in a red and white Arsenal shirt.
Wright started his career in professional football much later than most players, finally turning pro in his 20’s.
He started off at Crystal Palace and helped them get promotion from the Second Division. Wright forged a strong striking partnership with Mark Bright and in the 1989/90 season Palace reached the FA Cup Final for the first time in their history.
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| Wright stretches to put Palace 3-2 up in the 1990 FA Cup Final |
Wright had been out for several months with a broken leg and was in a rush to get fit for the Final. He didn’t make the starting line-up but did make the substitutes bench.
With Palace 2-1 down, their manager Steve Coppell sent him on to try and make a difference. He did just that and scored almost straight away to level the game.
He went one better by scoring a second to give Palace the lead but a late equaliser for United took the game to a replay
which United won 1-0.
Ian joined Arsenal in 1991 and was quite a surprising signing as they already had a few great forwards in the first team at the time.
Kevin Campbell, Paul Merson and Anders Limpar played in attacking roles alongside Alan Smith who had been the league’s top goalscorer in two of the previous three seasons.
Arsenal had on 5-2 at home to Sheffield United in the game immediately before he joined the club. This made it all the more puzzling as to why George Graham decided to break the club’s transfer record and sign Wright for £2.5 million.
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| Poise and control at its finest! |
Wrighty scored on his debut for Arsenal and followed it up with a hat-trick.
He won the Golden Boot in his first season at the club but didn’t make it into Graham Taylor’s Euro ’92 squad.
With Wright scoring most of the goals at Arsenal, they brushed aside opponents with ease in both domestic cups in Wright’s first full season at Arsenal. They reached both the FA Cup and Coca Cola Cup Finals.
Arsenal won 2-1 against Sheffield Wednesday in the Coca Cola Cup Final and in the FA Cup Final, it was Ian who scored to give Arsenal the lead. Wednesday came back and got an equaliser to take the Final to a replay.
Ian scored the first goal of the Final for the second time in a row and Arsenal ended up winning 2-1.
The following season Arsenal fared better in the league but were knocked out of the domestic competitions early on. Their main focus as the European Cup Winners Cup, the competition that they entered for winning the FA Cup in the previous season.
Arsenal stormed through to the Semi Finals where Wright scored in the away leg in Paris to give Arsenal the lead. The French side equalised though and the return leg at Highbury would decide who would be going through to the Final.
Arsenal took an early lead through Kevin Campbell but a reckless challenge by Wright caused him to get given a yellow card by the referee. As he had been booked earlier on in the tournament, this second yellow card mean that he was suspended for the Final. Wright slouched down onto the pitch with his head in his hands crying after he realised the implications of his rash challenge.
Luckily Arsenal went on and won 1-0 in the Final in a battling display against holders Parma.
Ian scored his 100th goal for Arsenal in the 1994/95 season against former club Crystal Palace but this was the only significant highlight of Wright’s season.
The team lost in the Final of the European Cup Winner’s Cup to a last-minute winner against Real Zaragoza but other troubles were going on at the club.
Paul Merson admitted to a coacaine addiction and a drink problem and George Graham, the manager who brought Wright to the club was sacked. Graham had taken some bungs during the transfer deals of some players and Arsenal dismissed him with immediate effect.
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| Bruce Rioch leaving Arsenal |
The following season started optimistically with new manager Bruce Rioch bringing in Dutch superstar Dennis Bergkamp to partner Wright up front. Along with Bergkamp, David Platt joined to add some steel and creativity to the midfield.
Things started well but Wright fell out with Rioch and shocked the club by handing in a transfer request. Glenn Hoddle at Chelsea showed interest but Arsenal weren’t going to sell their main target man.
Rioch left Arsenal in the summer of 1996 and Wright wasn’t selected for the England squad for the 1996 European Championships. He was 32 at the start of the tournament and Terry Venables opted for Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham to start up front.
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| Ian Wright and Peter Schmeichel clash at Highbury |
1996/97 brought a new manager for Arsene Wenger. The Frenchman immediatly made many changes to the way that the players would train, eat and play the game.
It was in this season where Wright clashed with the Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. The two crashed into each other in a fiercely-competed match in the penalty area and Arsenal weren’t awarded a penalty.
The 1997/98 season was Wenger’s first full season in charge at Arsenal and Wright’s first team opportunities were rather becoming more and more limited as the season progressed.
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| Wrighty finally breaks the Arsenal goalscoring record |
Wright did break the Arsenal goalscoring record early in the season with a hat-trick at home to Bolton Wanderers. He wore a vest under his Arsenal shirt with 179 Just Done It emblazoned across the front of it.
However when Wright scored his first goal against Bolton, he ripped his shirt off to show the crowd his vest but the goal that he was celebrating was in fact his 178th!
He did break the record a few minutes later and eventually amassed 185 goals in total at the club.
Wright left his beloved Arsenal at the end of the 1997/98 season with a League and Cup winners medal. He moved on to play for West Ham United, Celtic and Burnley before hanging up his boots for good.
Wrighty was one of the most clinical of strikers that has come out of England in the past 40 years and was a real maverick. He may not have been as perfect as Gary Lineker on the discipline front, but he matched the former England striker with his finishing skills.
It really does make you wonder what would have happened if he had played for England more.
Happy birthday Wrighty!
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