Manchester City were a "sleeping giant" when Shaun Wright-Phillips first joined the club but are "addicted to winning" now, the former Premier League star reckons. (More Football News)
Wright-Phillips joined City in 1999 when the club was still in the First Division, the then second rung of English football. Fast forward to now, City have won the Premier League for an unprecedented fourth consecutive time. In the ongoing season, City are at the top after five rounds with four wins and a draw coming against Arsenal.
The 42-year-old Premier League winner said that the team is now addicted to winning. "They like winning football matches, so the focus is on winning every match that they possibly can," Wright-Phillips told Outlook in an exclusive interaction. "It does not matter where they are and in which competition. They go into the game wanting to win the match in the way they play football."
Wright-Phillips played for City in two separate stints. First, he joined the club in 1999 as a 17-year-old and left in 2005. He returned in 2008 to stay till 2011 when he left for Queen Park Rangers. He said that during his first stint, the club was a sleeping giant and by the time he returned for his second journey with the side, everything had changed.
Talking about this transformation, he said: "Well in many ways it is obvious. The first time I was there, the club was a sleeping giant in many ways. The second time I came back, they had probably one of the best owners in the world. They actually cared about the club, they wanted the club to succeed, they are putting things in the right places, they are making things happen. The players, managers and the staff that they brought in have all been correct for the journey. They have created this blueprint and that has brought success."
The best part about City's dominance was their consistency, he reckoned. "The most magnificent thing is the consistency."
Son of Arsenal legend Ian Wright, Wright-Phillips said there was always pressure on him and his brother Bradley (who is also a former professional footballer). "Well, there is always going to be pressure. That is something I had to deal with and my brother had to deal with."
He said the way out of this pressure is focusing on your game and not letting the outside comments affect your football.
"At the end of the day, when you are at the football pitch, no matter what anybody outside of the pitch says, it does not really matter. Because the only things that matter is your manager and your family and the people you are trying to impress. Anyone else can say anything. That is their opinion but that does not mean their opinion counts when you are on the pitch. At the pitch you just do what you need to do, to succeed in the game of football."
Talking about his beginning as a footballer, the 42-year-old said he just fell in love with the game. "I fell in love with the game. Football is not something that you just know how to do. You just love the game and learn and want to be better and strive to do your best. You have to truly enjoy doing it and I enjoyed doing it. Me and my brother. It did many things for us."
He also said that football is much more than just a sport and that youngsters should not think that a place in the starting 11 is everything that there is.
"Sometimes people think that if you do not make it in football, the world is over. It is not. It transforms you as person from within and teaches so many values in life without you even realising. You just fall in love with the game. That does not mean you would make it to the top. You never know.
"You might think oh! I am doing fantastic and the next thing you know is that the manager does not play you. Sometimes there is luck involved. Wrong time, wrong manager and you might not even become a professional, no matter how good you are. End of the day, no one can say I knew I was going to make it here."
He said that if players can entertain the fans, they are in with a good chance to make it to the top. "So for me, it is like: you keep doing the right thing and enjoying these things and when you are right there working hard and in many ways working so that people are off their seats, entertaining them, then you are in with a hell of a chance."
Wright-Phillips was in India for the trophy tour of Manchester City, where the club's stop was in Delhi. He said that he enjoyed the country even though he admitted that he does not follow Indian football.
"Amazing, the fans, the people, the turnout, everyone has been amazing. Really enjoyed here (in India)," he said. "I do not get to see much of Indian football. It is not on in Europe to be able to watch. I come for football and do work in the community, and stuff like this (interactions) with the fans. I do not get to go to football matches. I'll be honest, I have not seen it."
