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Wright, Ian
[Player Pics]
Arsenal legend Ian Wright’s brief but painful Celtic career will always be connected with one of the most shameful nights in the Hoops history.
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 Nottiingham Forest when Celtic boss John Barnes – an ex-England colleague of Wright - came calling in search of a replacement for the injured Henrik Larsson.
Bhoys idol 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. 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 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 though his appearance had been anything but cinvincing. He was caught offside 8 times and looked sluugish 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 looking anything nut a potent goal threat. By the time Inverness Caledonian Thistle travelled to Celtic Park for a Scottish Cup third round tie on Feb 8th 2000 the suspicion that Wright was a washed up has been had become a firm conviction.
With Wright juggling his football career in Glasgow with a media and 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 Wright.
In short it was nepotisim at its worse. Celtic of course infamously lost that cup clash to Caley 3-1 with Wright a second-half substitute. Wright was not responsible for that disaster but the fans were now not in the mood to tolerate any player willing to pick up maximum earnings for minimum effort.
Wright – like all his team-mates – had to endure the full fury of the fans and he later claimed that his car was spat on as he drove away from the ground that night. If true then such an act is of course totally despicable. But so too was Wright’s attitude throughout his time at Celtic Park. He was undoubtedly a player living on a long faded reputation and his lack of effort and casual indifference to the Celtic cause made him nothing more than a charlatan.
John Barnes was sacked in the immediate wake of the Caley disaster and Wright followed soon after, heading to English Second Division side Burnley. He made just 9 appearance – including 5 starts for the Bhoys – and scored 3 goals. The figures in his bank account during that same period would make much more impressive reading.
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
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Latest page update: made by auldbhoy
, May 19 2008, 6:36 AM EDT
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