A Life in Football: My Autobiography

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Ian Wright, Arsenal legend, England striker and TV pundit extraordinaire, is one of the most interesting and relevant figures in modern football. Ian Wright MBE, Book Male Host Speaker Ian Wright MBE". Tmcentertainment.co.uk . Retrieved 16 September 2010. Wright presented Football Behind Bars, a reality TV series aired on Sky1 about his programme to socialise young men incarcerated at Portland Young Offenders Institution in Dorset by organising them in a football academy. The program was an experiment with the prison authority with an eye to expanding it to other prisons if it was successful. The series ran 6 episodes, aired weekly from 7 September to 12 October 2009. [76] A really enjoyable, frank, amusing, and enlightening autobiography. What inner strength to get from his beginning to his current status.

Lawson, John (28 August 1999). "Wright ending escapes Forest". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 5 September 2012. Over the years, watching Wright as a pundit on TV, he’s often seemed to me to have a kind of introspection that his fellow ex-players don’t quite share. He plays up to the caricature of the great enthusiast but occasionally he seems to drift off into a little private reverie. At those moments you have that sense that while for most players football was what they did, for him it was always more something that he was, heart and soul. You wonder how much that is tied up with how close he came to not making it. 'When you are through on goal, Ian,' Mr Pigden had said, 'slow down, pass the ball into the net, score beautiful goals'a b c "1990 FA Cup Final". www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010 . Retrieved 11 October 2013. In 2020, Wright was named TV/Radio Pundit of the Year by the Football Supporters' Association. [92] He won the award for a second time in 2022 as well as Pundit of the Year at the Broadcast Sports Awards and World Soccer 's Broadcaster of the Year. [93] Commercials [ edit ] England's World Cup History". Englandfootballonline.com. 27 June 2010 . Retrieved 16 September 2010. Bryan Robson quietly told me to take no notice of him, and while I appreciated that support, it didn’t make that game any easier. I guess McMahon just thought it was the sort of thing he could get away with because I was at Palace at the time when we weren’t particularly fashionable, while he was part of that Liverpool side that was winning everything. Scores and results list England's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Wright goal. List of international goals scored by Ian Wright

Wright also played in the Premier League for West Ham United, the Scottish Premier League for Celtic and the Football League for Burnley and Nottingham Forest. As of 2023 [update], he is Arsenal's second-highest scorer of all time and Crystal Palace's third-highest. [6] [7] Ian will also frankly discuss how retirement affects footballers, why George Graham deserves a statue, social media, why music matters, breaking Arsenal’s goal-scoring record, racism, the unadulterated joy of playing alongside Dennis Bergkamp and, of course, what he thinks of Tottenham. a b "Player of the Year Awards". Crystal Palace FC. 16 May 2006. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010 . Retrieved 11 October 2013. a b Ross, James M. (8 June 2017). "English League Leading Goalscorers 1889–2007". RSSSF . Retrieved 8 October 2017. My biggest gripe was Wright's unwillingness to stand by his words. For example, he had major problems with the former Arsenal manager, George Graham and he goes into great detail about it. But then he'll praise him and almost exonerate him of wrong-doing. This happens quite a few times throughout the book and drove me round the bend. How you can have two polarising opinions about a person / event in the same book, sometimes a few sentences apart is beyond me and grew frustrating with each occurrence.

Ian will also frankly discuss how retirement affects footballers, why George Graham deserves a statue, social media, the Premiership vs the First Division, why music matters, breaking Arsenal's goal-scoring record, racism, the unadulterated joy of playing alongside Dennis Bergkamp and, of course, what he thinks about Tottenham. During a radio interview with Absolute Radio, the day after he was axed, Wright stated: "It's just been arguments for the last couple of weeks." [74] Wright's contract was due to end in September 2010, but show bosses decided not to renew it. [74] [75] Wright made his final appearance on Wednesday 11 August's edition of Live from Studio Five. [74] The show was axed in February 2011. They absolutely believe they can. Wright wasn’t a great reader in his teens but he likes the promise of calmness and private worlds that reading a book implies. “I think Marcus can inspire that,” he says. “You can come to a book in your own time. There’s something kind of permanent about it, I think.” The arrival of Bruce Rioch heralded a bleaker time; the two did not get on and eventually Wright handed in a transfer request which he later retracted. [4] The arrival of Dennis Bergkamp brought a brief but fruitful striking partnership: in their first season together they helped Arsenal finish fifth in the league and qualify for the UEFA Cup. [27] They also reached the League Cup semi-finals, in which they lost on away goals to eventual winners Aston Villa. [28]