Ian Wright has gone down memory lane to discuss an infamous foul involving him and the then Manchester United goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel in 1997.
The former Arsenal attacker was chasing a ball towards Manchester United’s goal in the game at Highbury but he eventually crashed into Peter Schmeichel who needed to be attended to.
The foul caused a furious reaction from Sir Alex Ferguson and some of the United players, however, years later Ian Wright is still pleading his innocence.
The Arsenal legend maintains that he only had his eyes on the ball and he never had the intention of fouling Schmeichel.
He also revealed that he had a run-in with the goalie in an earlier game at Old Trafford before the Red Devils came visiting on this particular occasion.
He told Match of the Day Top 10 podcast as quoted by the Manchester Evening News, “I didn’t try to snap him, all I did in that particular incident was jump on the ball.
“I was a little bit wound up at the time, Peter said a couple of things I didn’t find very nice – a couple of unsavoury things.”
Later on in the podcast, Wright said: “We had an altercation at Old Trafford, which led to this game a couple of months later.
“In the first half of that game, we went in for a challenge that was so venomous that we actually burst the ball.
“The funny thing is, the tackle that everyone sees, the whistle had already gone and I just didn’t stop.
“When you look at it, you can see that the game had stopped but we were both running for it, the red mist was already there.
“His leg was out, I saw the ball and I just jumped on the ball, two-footed.
“They said it was the tackle that shamed football – when I look back at it, it’s quite an embarrassing thing to see.”
Wright would go on to become one of Arsenal’s best goal scorers, while Schmeichel would also attain legendary status in the Premier League.
Wednesday 19th February 1996, got the programme right in front of me. Wrote an article for that Manchester United programme about my fantasy Arsenal X1. Didn’t get it on the night until someone told me they’d seen the article. Went to the Arsenal shop at Finsbury Park for a copy the next day and as I came out of the shop the TV camera was waiting, yeah it was ITV 6 0’clock News, took me to one side and ask me what I thought of the tackle, my answer was “well,he goes over the top sometimes but not last night, Schmeichel made a meal of it”, rushed home and watched myself on the News. The truth is, it was a disgraceful challenge, one that he’d have been sent off for today without a doubt. A great goalscorer but a terribly immature spoilt brat , throughout his Arsenal career. Almost cost us a ECWC with his stupid sending off in the semis.
Kenny, your comments regarding Wrighty perhaps explains, in an earlier article why he claimed that Vieria and he never got on when Patrick was captain?
I love Wrighty’s commitment to our club, but sometimes his “enthusiasm” bordered on immaturity.
As Jon Fox always says, with age comes maturity (sometimes!!) and Wrighty seems to epitomize that view.
I think his assessment of games on MOTD are unbiased, make sense and yet he still seems to be enjoying himself – long may it continue.
Should have commented on your article about your fantasy team – who was in it???????
You certainly have some fantastic links with the club, much more than just supporting them. Great story!!
I agree with you Ken, Wrighty has finally matured and comes across well on MOTD, however that behaviour of “the little boy lost” attitude was good for his game when he was at Arsenal, it made him loved by everyone in the dressing room and good for his confidence My fantasy team in ’96 Ken was Kelsey, Storey, McClintock, Adams Sansom, Armstrong, Eastham, Brady and the newly arrived Dennis Bergkamp behind Ian Wright and Joe Baker. Obviously this was just before the emergence of the ’98 players and the Invincibles
As much as I loved Charlie George I just couldn’t get him in there and in actual fact I apologised to him. In my notes. Thinking Charlie would be sitting somewhere up in the East Stand reading the programme, I said ” Dennis Bergkamp gets in behind Wright and Baker, sorry Charlie but Dennis is poetry in motion”, This was at a point where we had ten years of success with Arsenal’s greatest ever player and Manager to come and an Invincible season to round it off.
As much as I loved Charlie George I just couldn’t get him in there and in actual fact I apologised to him. In my notes. Thinking Charlie would be sitting somewhere up in the East Stand reading the programme, I said ” Dennis Bergkamp gets in behind Wright and Baker, sorry Charlie but Dennis is poetry in motion”, This was at a point where we had ten years of success with Arsenal’s greatest ever player and Manager to come and an Invincible season to round it off.
Great looking team Kenny, I’m going away to think about it myself now.
Really pleased to see you put George Eastham in there, he seems to have slipped by the radar of most fans of our age group and he was a massive signing whe it was announced.
You’ve done it again, Kenny 👏👍 Nice one! And making it into a programme too – spot on!! You could so easily write an article (or 5 😁) on here, with some wonderful pictures too I bet!
Also, as much as I love that Wrighty, that tackle made me cringe.. and boy did I hear about it the next day at work!!!