Wright, Ian

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Fullname: Ian Edward Wright
aka: Ian Wright, ‘Wrighty’
Born: 3 Nov 1963
Birthplace: Woolwich, London (England)
Signed: 27 Oct 1999
Left: 14 Feb 2000
Position: Forward, Striker
Debut: Celtic 5-1 Kilmarnock, League, 30 Oct 1999
Internationals: England
International Caps: 33 caps
International Goals: 9 goals

Biog

“When you met Celtic fans, as long as you wore this shirt, you were loved. I’ve never seen love like it.” Ian Wright

Arsenal legend Ian Wright’s brief but painful Celtic career will always be connected with one of the most demoralising nights in Celtic’s history.

Ian Wright was in the twilight of an impressive career when he moved to Glasgow in October 2000 on a short term deal from West Ham United.

The striker had been on loan at Nottingham Forest when Celtic boss John Barnes – an ex-England colleague of Wright – came calling in search of a replacement for the injured Henrik Larsson.

Henrik Larsson had recently suffered a horrific leg-break in a UEFA Cup tie in Lyon and with his team’s talisman seemingly out for at least the rest of the season Barnes was desperate to secure the services of a proven goalscorer to get us through. Asking anyone to fill Larsson’s golden boots was always going to be a impossible task and its fair to say that a lot of the Celtic support were less than convinced when Barnes handed that opportunity to his friend Wright.

There’s no doubt that in his Highbury days Wright was very much the real deal and in the past he had always spoken warmly about Celtic. But by the time he pulled into Kerrydale Street his best years were well behind him. Although there was no fee involved to bring Wright to Glasgow his reported wages were reported to be astronomical.

Despite their reservations the Hoops support were more than willing to give the former-Crystal Palace man a chance and he netted on his debut – a 5-1 demolition of Kilmarnock. In truth, his appearance had been anything but convincing. He was caught offside 8 times and looked sluggish in both his mind and his legs.

The following week Celtic were soundly defeated 4-2 by Rangers at Ibrox where Wright offered very little for the cause and looking anything but a potent goal threat. By the time Inverness Caledonian Thistle travelled to Celtic Park for a Scottish Cup third round tie on 8th February 2000 the suspicion that Ian Wright was a washed up has-been had become a firm conviction.

With Ian Wright juggling his football career in Glasgow with a media and ‘B-list’ TV career in London, many supporters rightly questioned the player’s commitment and hunger. Accusing fingers were pointed in the direction of Barnes and terms such as ‘jobs for the boys’ and ‘old pals act’ were used to describe a signing which increasingly appeared to benefit no-one apart from Ian Wright.

The whole signing was seen as cronyism at its worst – not that there had not been signs of that already with Celtic Chief Executive Allan MacDonald appointing his golfing buddy Dalglish, who in turn appointed his own mate Barnes.

It all blew up when Celtic went on to infamously lose in a Scottish Cup clash to Inverness CT 3-1 with Ian Wright a second-half substitute. Ian Wright was not solely responsible for that disaster but the fans were not now in the mood to tolerate any player willing to pick up maximum earnings for perceived minimum effort.

Ian Wright – like all his team-mates – had to endure the full fury of the fans.

However, Ian Wright’s attitude throughout his time at Celtic Park was below par. He was undoubtedly a player living on a long faded reputation, and his general lack of footballing effort and apparent casual indifference to Celtic made him nothing more than a lost cause as a replacement striker for Larsson. Barnes had seen to hang his reputation on Wright by bringing him to the club for an inflated salary whilst he also conducted his weekly media obligations and therefore trained indifferently.

It shouldn’t have been any surprise of Wright’s poor form. He’d let his form go in his last season or so at Arsenal and similar complaints were made at the clubs that followed. His career was coming to its end, and probably his eye was on what was going to be beyond it (e.g. media roles).

Beyond the results, his only other memorable moment (comically) was against Aberdeen, where after a rout his goal celebration was a salmon leap onto the ground! All in good humour, but kind of characterised his time & attitude at Celtic.

John Barnes was sacked in the immediate wake of the Inverness CT disaster and Wright followed out the door soon after, heading to English Second Division side Burnley. Ian Wright was possibly the only public sympathiser for John Barnes, but the facts were there for all to make their own decisions.

He made just ten appearances for Celtic – including just five starts for the Bhoys – and scored three goals. To a cynic, the figures in his bank account during that same period would make much more impressive reading when you take in the little effort he often put in to earn it.

Post-Celtic
His immediate start at Burnley was somewhat delayed whilst the footballing authorities tried to sort out a charge of bringing the game into disrepute picked up during his time in Scotland (an argument with Willie Young at Kilmarnock led to a red card followed by pushing and shoving the referee). At the end of the season he retired from professional football, as he always said he had planned to do.

Post-playing, he has actually been very good to Celtic. Goaded by various Rangers fans calling his radio phone-in shows, he has never pandered to them and instead stated clearly his sympathies, love and respect for Celtic. He refused for many years to blow the lid on what happened in the dressing room that night against Inverness preferring to hint and allow others to explain. If anything, that was the best that came out of his short unstable time at Celtic, and in fairness it wasn’t of his making.

If he had applied himself properly (as say Dion Dublin did in his short stay at Celtic years later) then things could have been quite different for all, and for that John Barnes (the manager) must take the flak for not pressing on Wright.

He was awarded an MBE in 2003 and has since worked in television as both a football pundit of the cheekie-chappy, flag-waving & chest-beating variety and as a presenter of various light entertainment programmes on both terrestrial and satellite channels (mostly forgettable).

Quotes

“It is the greatest supported club in the world and it was a privilege to play for them.”
Ian Wright (Celtic)

“The press up there seemed to be very pro-Rangers, too, so journalists had so much fun ridiculing me and my so-called lack of form up there.”
Ian Wright (Celtic)

“I can’t think of anything but happy times at Celtic. Apart from the fact, you didn’t know who you were bumping into when you were walking down the road, which could be a nightmare. But when you met Celtic fans, as long as you wore this shirt, you were loved. I’ve never seen love like it. I remember going for lunch with Henrik Larsson and it was literally like walking along the road with Elvis Presley.”
Ian Wright in a look back on his career (2020)

Playing Career

Club	From	To	Fee	League		Scottish/FA Cup		League cup		Other
Burnley	14/02/2000	07/06/2000	Free	4 (11)	4	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Celtic	27/10/1999	14/02/2000	Free	4 (4)	3	0 (1)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Nottm Forest	27/08/1999	26/10/1999	Loan	10 (0)	5	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
West Ham	13/07/1998	27/10/1999	£ 500000	20 (2)	9	1 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (1)	0
Arsenal	24/09/1991	13/07/1998	£ 2500000	212 (9)	128	16 (0)	12	29 (0)	29	22 (0)	16
C Palace	02/08/1985	24/09/1991	Free	206 (19)	89	9 (2)	3	19 (0)	9	19 (3)	16
Greenwich Borough	01/08/1984	02/08/1985		No appearance data available
Totals			£3,000,000	456 (45)	238	26 (3)	15	51 (0)	38	41 (4)	32
	___________	___________	goals / game	0.47		0.51		0.74		0.71
				Apps ________	Goals ________	Apps ________	Goals ________	Apps ________	Goals ________	Apps ________	Goals ________

Honours with Celtic

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Celtic v Rangers fixture is “vile” blasts former Arsenal and Hoops striker Ian Wright

07:45, 28 Sep 2016
Updated07:57, 28 Sep 2016
By Record Sport Online

TV pundit condemns the derby in his new autobiography and claims it is “a nasty, tense, unsporting environment of super-intense religious bigotry”.

Ian Wright of Celtic celebrates with Paul Lambert after scoring his first goal for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, a match against Kilmarnock at Celtic Park.

FORMER Celtic striker Ian Wright has blasted the Old Firm fixture as being “vile” and “fuelled by hatred”.

The Arsenal legend and former England forward condemned the Celtic versus Rangers fixture in his new autobiography, A Life In Football , where he admits to being naive about the hatred.

Wright only spent a short time at Celtic Park – making eight appearances and scoring three goals during the 1999-2000 season – after being brought to Glasgow’s east end by Hoops manager John Barnes.

Writing in his book, TV pundit Wright said: “This wasn’t football, listening to songs being sung from the start to the finish of the game saying ‘**** the Pope and the IRA’, or you’re in your car and people start banging on the roof shouting ‘No retreat! No surrender!’

“At first, I didn’t even know what they were talking about.

There was a vile atmosphere, fuelled by hatred, especially at the Old Firm derby. Fans love to talk about it like it’s this unbelievable thing!

“It’s not an unbelievable thing: it’s a nasty, tense, unsporting environment of super-intense religious bigotry that’s nothing to do with sport.”

Wright also goes on to state how he believes that the Scottish media are biased in favour of the blue half of the Glasgow divide stating: “The press up there seemed to be very pro- Rangers , too, so journalists had so much fun ridiculing me and my so-called lack of form up there.”

Wright condemns Barnes lynch mob

Wright condemns Barnes lynch mob Wright: Was facing a lengthy ban in Scottish football Ian Wright has lifted the lid on the mutiny at Celtic which led to the departure of coach John Barnes. A half-time dressing-room bust-up which preceded the Hoops’ embarrassing 3-1 home Scottish Cup reverse to First Division side Inverness Caledonian Thistle proved to be Barnes’ final game in charge. I just can’t help thinking a lot of people have finally got what they wanted – John Barnes sacked Ian Wright

“The dressing-room is sacrosanct and I don’t intend to reveal secrets.

“But I will say I have never witnessed anything like it in my entire career for club and country. It was shocking,” said Wright, who has since been ditched by director of football Kenny Dalglish and has now joined Second Division side Burnley.

The former Arsenal player also launched a fierce attack on a minority of Celtic supporters who rounded on him during his short loan spell at the Scottish club.

“I felt I was caught up in a war crisis in Kosovo not involved in a football result that wrecked John Barnes’ career as Celtic manager. Jonathan Gould: Unhappy at being dropped

“Some so-called fans, a few morons who know nothing better, covered my car in spit, they were shouting obscenities at myself and Regi Blinker.

“They were screaming at me to get back to London, to clear off out of the place and that I didn’t deserve to wear their colours. It was stone age stuff from reptiles.”

Wright and keeper Jonathan Gould have both left the club since Barnes’ departure.

“I just can’t help thinking a lot of people have finally got what they wanted – John Barnes sacked,” he said. “Celtic won nine of their first 10 games yet as soon as we lost our first there were rumblings. “One game, one single, solitary game. “I believe that John simply did not get a fair crack of the whip as coach.

Slagged off

“There was always someone waiting to slag him off and now they’ve got what the wanted,” he told the Sun. Wright said Barnes did not receive full backing from the Celtic management from the moment he arrived at Celtic Park nine months ago.

“You can’t tell me people were not gunning for him.

“Those nine wins on the spin were a better start to the season than the last time Celtic won the title.

“Not for me, Barnes’ sacking has little to do with his ability as a coach.”

Ian Wright opens up on Celtic career and reveals he’s ‘never felt love like it’

By Mark Hendry @mhendry92 Sports Writer

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/18308168.ian-wright-opens-celtic-career-reveals-never-felt-love-like-it/

Ian Wright has opened up on his love for Celtic despite starring for the Hoops during one of their most infamously turbulent seasons under manager John Barnes.

Arsenal and England legend Wright was coming towards the end of his career when he opted to join Barnes and Kenny Dalglish in Glasgow. He netted just three goals in 10 appearances as the Hoops’ season flopped and ended with the horror show at Parkhead when ‘Super Caley went ballistic’ and won 3-1 at Parkhead in 2000.

Wright, 56, still remembers his short Celtic career fondly and admits he’s “never felt love like it” from Hoops supporters. “I love Celtic because of Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain and all that lot when I was younger,” he told My Classic Football Shirts Warehouse Tour.

“So to go there for the little time when John Barnes was manager, it was a nightmare for John Barnes. But I can’t think of anything but happy times at Celtic.

“Apart from the fact, you didn’t know who you were bumping into when you were walking down the road, which could be a nightmare. But when you met Celtic fans, as long as you wore this shirt, you were loved. I’ve never seen love like it.

“I remember going for lunch with Henrik Larsson and it was literally like walking along the road with Elvis Presley.”