lf anything can justify Sky TV’s =9C34 charge=20 for a month’s subscription fee, it is the=20 advertising breaks during its screening of=20 live Premiership football matches. Crisply=20 directed mini-epics, with budgets that=20 would raise eyebrows in Hollywood, there=20 seems to be an arms race in the new breed=20 of commercials which fill half-times: they=20 get bigger, brasher, better with every new=20 season. It is just a shame the football=20 can’t keep pace.
These advertisements use every=20 sophisticated technique known to commercial=20 man in the aim of prising open the nation’s=20 wallets. At the moment, as well as swanky=20 locations, swish photography and subliminal=20 messaging, that means employing Ian Wright.=20 The Arsenal striker’s gap-toothed smile,=20 with its gold-cap glinting in the arc=20 lights, seems to feature in at least half=20 of the commercials currently jostling for=20 attention. Whether it is for Nike,=20 Littlewood’s Pools or the Daily Mirror,=20 Wrighty is the figurehead they all want to=20 engage, the man they believe will grab the=20 attention of the most hard-to-reach=20 spending group in the country: young adult=20 males.
“Ian has an image which is brash and full=20 of fun,” says a spokesman from Littlewood’s=20 to explain his company’s employment tactic.=20 “He is seen as street-wise and fashion- conscious. He has the respect of the=20 youth.” He is also, though this remains=20 unspoken, black and proud of it. Thus when=20 an advertiser buys Wright, he buys with him=20 all the valuable anti-establishment panache=20 a successful south London black man can=20 carry. He buys credibility.
“I want to be recognised as someone who has=20 never sold out,” Wright once said. “As=20 someone who made black people proud and was=20 fearless in the way Malcolm X was.” Some=20 image, that.
This, then, is Britain’s answer to Michael=20 Jordan; the man reckoned to appeal most to=20 the pubescent trainer-and-fizzy-drink=20 buyers of Britain: cocky, sharp,=20 rebellious. And, bizarrely enough, old=20 enough to be their dad. On November 11, he=20 will be 34 and has four sons of his own to=20 equip with the latest fads he endorses. Ian=20 Wright: the oldest teenage icon in Britain.
Last May Eric Cantona retired. At 31, it=20 was widely sensed – not least by the man=20 himself – that time was catching up with=20 him; he was slowing on the pitch, unable to=20 do the things with a ball he was wont to.=20 Earlier this month John Barnes was=20 discarded by Liverpool. At 33, he was=20 blamed by the Anfield management for the=20 team’s ponderous, arthritic midfield=20 performances the previous season.=20
Wright, though, seems to work on a=20 different chronology. At a time when most=20 footballing careers are moving into=20 another, slower gear, his shows no sign of=20 abating. While his contemporaries are=20 thinking of spending more time at home with=20 their financial advisers, Wright appears to=20 becoming ever more potent on the pitch and=20 ever more popular off it. The commercial=20 offers pour in: Yves St Laurent has just=20 signed him up to promote the label; he is=20 in negotiation with LWT to present a series=20 of weekend light entertainment shows; the=20 BBC want him as a Match of the Day pundit.=20 His time has come.
Not everyone is thrilled. Soon he will=20 break Cliff Bastin’s 50-year record for=20 scoring the most goals over a career for=20 Arsenal Football Club. There is some=20 speculation among Arsenal supporters as to=20 how their favoured son will respond when he=20 achieves his history-making goal. Will he=20 reprise the six-shooter mime he adopted a=20 couple of seasons back? Will he perform a=20 macarena in the centre circle? Or will he=20 sprint around the pitch, bawling, the tears=20 running down his cheek as they are prone to=20 do after goals on big occasions?=20
Whatever he does – and the chances are he=20 has been choreographing the moment in=20 training for months – Wright’s response=20 will be noted. Tony Gubba, the BBC=20 commentator, wryly set the tone after=20 Wright scored on the opening game of the=20 season and marked his strike with a display=20 of hip-rotating and groin-grabbing that=20 Michael Jackson might find a mite=20 excessive. “Ian Wright is now just a couple=20 of goals from Cliff Bastin’s 50-year-old=20 record,” Gubba remarked on Match of the=20 Day. “You imagine Bastin probably didn’t=20 celebrate his goals quite like that.”=20
Never mind Gazza, for a good chunk of the=20 press Wright is the football yob supreme: a=20 gobby prima-donna interested only in self- gratification.
To be fair, Wright has done his best to=20 fulfil the image his detractors have=20 developed: smearing the Coventry=20 goalkeeper’s nose across his cheek-bone;=20 stamping on a Nottingham Forest defender;=20 abusing a disabled linesman about his=20 deformity; attempting on-field surgery on=20 the Manchester United goalkeeper’s knee=20 without the benefit of anaesthetic. Plus,=20 in every game, a proclivity towards=20 spitting, sulking, arguing with referees=20 and, above all, swearing.
“Let’s put it this way,” says his former=20 striking partner at Crystal Palace, Mark=20 Bright. “Ian is keen on industrial=20 language.” And yet the big corporate=20 players whose money is re-shaping football,=20 are falling over each other to associate=20 themselves with this man. Why?=20
There is something about Wright that some=20 of us cannot help admiring. He has an=20 enthusiasm, a desire, a passion, which=20 mirrors that generated in the stands. In an=20 era driven by money, he appears to be a man=20 who cares, who gives his all for his team=20 and for the fans. For those sympathetic to=20 his make-up, it seems it is that attitude=20 to the game that lands him in trouble. He=20 loses his composure because what goes on=20 around him matters.
According to Steve Coppell, the man who=20 discovered Wright and signed him from non- league football when he was 23, his drive=20 stems from the fact he was a late starter=20 in the game.=20
“Because he has experienced life outside=20 football he knows what the alternatives=20 are. Of all the players I’ve dealt with,=20 Ian is the one who most wanted to succeed.=20 And he is determined to play for as long as=20 he can.”=20
Wright has certainly seen life outside=20 football. He has been a plasterer, a=20 builder, he once worked in a chemical=20 factory near the Isle of Dogs, ankle-deep=20 in toxic filth. Plus he has been a scally,=20 a rude boy, living large in south London=20 gangs, even doing time as a teenager for=20 motoring offences. So when he got his=20 chance, he seized it. Like we imagine we=20 all would.
Compare his attitude, for instance, to that=20 of Robbie Fowler, the Liverpool striker. To=20 all intents and purposes a professional=20 footballer from the age of 12, Fowler=20 recently told Loaded magazine that he can’t=20 remember any of the goals he scored. After=20 a while, he said, they all merge into one.=20
Read Wright’s autobiography (the=20 imaginatively titled Mr Wright) and it is=20 full of descriptions of his goals, recalled=20 in lavish detail, in slo-mo, in=20 technicolor.
But the unhappy by-product of his late=20 development is that Wright did not learn=20 about self-discipline through the parade- ground style apprenticeship favoured by=20 football clubs. At 16, the edges were not=20 knocked off him by cleaning toilets and=20 polishing boots. “I don’t think Ian can=20 play in control,” says Coppell. “He’s=20 intuitive and instinctive. If you make him=20 think, the intuition is lost.”=20
Ultimately, the appealing thing about=20 Wright is that, at 33, he plays like a big=20 kid. With his love of beating players, of=20 scoring goals, of simply playing, with his=20 gossamer thread temperament, with the tears=20 of frustration welling the moment things go=20 wrong, it is as if he is playing every week=20 between four piles of anoraks rather than=20 in the most elegant football stadium in the=20 country.
“Leave him alone, he’s just a big cry- baby,” the former Arsenal manager George=20 Graham once shouted when Wright was in the=20 midst of a crying jag in the dressing room.=20 “The rest of us have got a game to win.”=20 Wright is not exactly grown-up in his off- pitch behaviour either. With his big wage=20 packets (=9C15 000 a week from Arsenal, plus=20 at least as much again from commercial=20 activities) he has bought himself the=20 trappings of footballing success: fancy=20 motors, a place substantial enough to house=20 a full-sized snooker table, he has an=20 extravagant suit habit. And shoes: he has=20 hundreds of pairs and takes a Marcos-like=20 interest in footwear.
Like a small boy on a trolley sweep at Toys=20 ‘R’ Us, he enjoyed also the attention=20 celebrity brought. Especially from women.=20 The paternity suits have not been=20 infrequent: he has one son by his wife,=20 Deborah; three by previous relationships.
“I’m no Brad Pitt and when I was a=20 plasterer women didn’t find me very=20 attractive at all,” he told the News of the=20 World, rather endearingly, when he was=20 confronted about an extra-marital affair.=20 “I was weak and vulnerable. Not that that’s=20 any excuse.”
For some, though, Wright’s excesses will=20 always compromise his achievements. His=20 last manager at Highbury, Bruce Rioch, with=20 whom he fell out badly was one. Rioch=20 reckoned Wright’s tantrums were costing the=20 whole team dear. Not one to enjoy falling=20 out with colleagues, Wright appeared=20 recently to have seen his critics might=20 have a point. Following the Highbury=20 fashion for therapy set by Tony Adams and=20 Paul Merson, he has sought professional=20 help and taken anger counselling.
“It will be hard for him,” says Dr George=20 Sik, a psychiatrist with a particular=20 interest in football. “Old habits die hard.=20 I think the analogy with Wright is of=20 someone late in life trying to give up=20 smoking. Remember, his way of behaving has=20 brought him success in past. And the=20 intensely competitive will to win is very=20 difficult to separate from aggression, both=20 are functions of testosterone. The thing=20 about him is, it seems to me, like a child,=20 Wright always responded to praise. So if=20 people support him through this, it may=20 well work.”=20
Indeed, the irony of a man of such=20 untrammelled aggression is that what he=20 wants above all is to be loved all the=20 time. By everyone. You can tell that in his=20 response to fans, to colleagues, to=20 authority: if they love him, he loves them=20 back.
Those who have met him say that it is no=20 wonder Wright is such a success on=20 television. He has that instinctive ability=20 to give people what they want that comes of=20 wishing to be liked. On Match of the Day he=20 is a personable pundit: not the most=20 articulate, perhaps, but warm, personable,=20 intelligent. And charming.
In the end, perhaps that is why=20 corporations are lining up to employ him.=20 He fulfils all those requirements to meet=20 their demographic needs – hard, sharp,=20 successful, black.=20
Yet after the shoot, in the bar, he won’t=20 spit in the eye of the managing director