Shaun Wright-Phillips, now of QPR, faces his former club
Chelsea in the Premier League derby at Loftus Road. Photograph: Tom
Jenkins
Shaun Wright-Phillips celebrates his birthday next week and, as
he edges into his 30s, the ambitions he still hopes to fulfil
become ever quirkier. An aspiration to assist Queens Park Rangers
to a first top-flight home win since Mark Hateley led their line
and Ray Wilkins patrolled midfield is understandable enough. As is
the desire for that victory to come at the expense of his former
club Chelsea in Sunday's derby. Unsurprising, too, is a craving to
return to Fabio Capello's England squad in time for next summer's
European Championship.
Yet there is another pressing target to be achieved by the end
of the calendar year, one that has the winger pressed for time with
an appointment booked across town. "I've never been able to touch
my toes," he says. "Seriously, never. In a game I'm, like, 'Rubber
Man' or something but, off the pitch, I'm the least flexible person
you could imagine. It's down to short hamstrings apparently.
Anyway, I've started yoga and have told the lady taking the classes
she has to get me touching my toes by Christmas. That's my task." A
second session of downward-facing dog and pyramid poses awaits with
a more supple life ahead, all of which feels apt given
Wright-Phillips is currently bouncing back.
A deadline-day return to London with QPR has served to rejuvenate after too
long kicking his heels on the fringes at Manchester City. The
England winger had previously gone a year without starting a
Premier League game, a victim of aggressive squad building at
Eastlands and the departure of Mark Hughes, the manager who had
taken him back to City after three years in and out of the team at
Chelsea.
Sunday's eagerly anticipated meeting with former employers will
provide his sixth league start in succession, an involvement he has
not enjoyed since the last few weeks of Hughes's tenure. Indeed,
under Roberto Mancini, the winger made only two top-flight starts
last term. To see him busily scuttling at full-backs these days,
spitting shots at goal with glee, is to witness a player making up
for lost time.
His team's aspirations may have changed, from targeting league
titles to focusing on survival, but not since he was breaking on to
the scene in his first spell at City has Wright-Phillips felt so
integral. Neil Warnock, a manager relishing one last fling at the
big time, recruited a quintet of top-flight performers in transfer
deadline week, and each had his own reason to wish to make an
impression. "He brought in hungry, experienced players, and we all
had something to prove," said the England midfielder. "But my own
hunger was purely about the enjoyment of playing. Being out of a
team changes you as a person. You don't realise it but, away from
the game, you can be snappy with your family or friends if you're
not playing. It hurts not to be involved, but I guess you have to
accept it. It's part and parcel of being at a big club."
Wright-Phillips could be deemed a high-profile victim of the
modern day squad building phenomenon. The Premier League has
attracted a handful of billionaire owners and the midfielder has
worked under two of them, Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour. Yet,
while he has admittedly earned handsomely each time, he only ever
thrived in fits and starts when surrounded by the best talent money
could buy. Stockpiling players of such calibre forces seasoned
internationals to the margins. The Russian oligarch would visit the
dressing room post-match, congratulating or commiserating his £21m
signing – "He was always relaxed and would try to get to know you
one-to-one so that you felt comfortable going to him if ever you
needed something" – during a three-year spell that yielded all
three major domestic honours, yet Wright-Phillips' impact still
always felt rather peripheral. The one thing Abramovich could not
provide him with was a guaranteed first-team place.
At City, where the midfielder made his name long before Arab
money transformed expectations, his second coming was effectively
eclipsed by the Abu Dhabi takeover. Suddenly, £8.5m purchases felt
like small change, the type of fee forked out on a squad player to
flesh out the numbers. There was to be no place in the match-day
squad for the FA Cup final last May, just as there had not been
with Avram Grant's Chelsea at the European Cup final in Moscow in
2008. Even so, the winger reflects on both spells among the
nouveaux riches with pride. "I remind myself that I got there in
the first place, to Chelsea and City," he says. "For someone who
was playing Sunday League football on a concrete surface in south
London not that long ago, to find myself in a position where I was
fighting for a first-team place at clubs that big represented a
huge leap. I'll never forget that, even if it was frustrating at
times.
"With City, it's different. That's the club where it began for
me, one that I've been close to since I was 17, so to see the
transformation the place has gone through to have them sitting on
top of the table just makes me happy: for the fans, for the players
who were there just before the takeover, and for those who are now
enjoying it. To see them achieving everything City's supporters had
ever wanted is wonderful. I don't have any remorse or regret over
the situation I found myself in there. It's not about me. It's
about the club moving in the right direction. Over the 10 years I
spent there, that's all they ever wanted: to be challenging. Now
they are. To have been partly involved in making that possible
makes me proud.
"And looking back at Chelsea, I feel the same. It was always
going to be hard breaking into that team, and I knew it would be
like that. But I played a part, I helped win trophies, and the
whole thing was a brilliant experience. Why would there be any
regrets? I worked under José Mourinho, a manager who taught me new
things and stressed I should believe in myself. It could be
difficult out of the side, but when someone like him tells you: 'I
signed you, so I've got confidence in you,' the feeling you get is
unbelievable. He made everyone feel involved and part of things,
even if you were out of the first team. That is a huge talent. When
I look back, I played 27 games in each of my three seasons at the
club, a good amount in a team that was winning and pretty much
dominating at the time. And, all the time, I was learning."
He will confront friends turned foes at Loftus Road. His
immediate task is to unsettle Ashley Cole – "Different class, a
full-back who plays like a wing-back and is a nightmare to be up
against" – but he must also summon something unpredictable to
surprise his rivals' manager. André Villas-Boas was on the scouting
staff under Mourinho and made a lasting impression on
Wright-Phillips. "You recognise when an opposition scout's good at
what he does. With him, the information he gave you was always
accurate. He'd provide in-depth analysis of every player on the
opposing side: how they play; where they were strong; how you could
get at them; inside leg measurement … you name it, he knew it. He
studied the game in minute detail, so it's no surprise to see what
he's achieved since. I guess he's got people doing all that for him
now, and they'll have their reports on me. I'll just have to try
and do the opposite to what they might expect."
In a sense, Wright-Phillips has done that even by venturing to
Rangers. There had been a flurry of interest from more established
Premier League clubs on the eve of the transfer deadline. Bolton
were long-standing admirers. David Moyes telephoned as the cut-off
ticked closer to persuade him to move to Everton. Yet, even when he
arrived at breakfast at the team hotel before the match at Wolves
to find his team-mates had replaced his seat with a highchair,
there has been no regretting the choice he made. "QPR just felt
like the right fit," he adds. "Sure, it was nice to feel wanted.
Attackers thrive on confidence, and all the interest was a reminder
that people hadn't forgotten me, but this was a chance to make a
mark again. For now it's all about staying in this division before
looking to push on. We've only offered flashes of what we can
achieve so far, and maybe our form hasn't been there consistently.
But it's coming. We're improving.
"The set-up is solid. We've got an owner [Tony Fernandes] who is
ambitious, someone who likes to interact with everyone who's
supportive of what he's trying to do, meeting the fans in the pub,
chatting on Twitter, talking to the players. We're all on the same
wavelength. We've got a manager [Warnock] who is loving being in
this division. He's a different generation to a Mourinho or a
Mancini, but his methods aren't any less effective. He does things
his way and he knows how to win games. He had faith in me, and I
want to repay that. I've still got lots I want to achieve, and lots
to give QPR. The Chelsea game is the biggest derby we'll have this
season. I guess that means it'll be the perfect place to
start."