A former Manchester City star has sensationally claimed that the club ‘would have gone into administration’ without selling him – and that he had to accept the move as a result.
Back in 2005, Shaun Wright-Phillips was one of the rising stars of the Premier League, have netted a combined 17 goals in his previous two seasons.
He was a key player under Kevin Keegan and then Stuart Pearce as City finished in eighth place in the 2004/05 season – their highest-ever Premier League finishing position at the time.
He had started to attract interest from Arsenal, who won the title as the second Invincibles in 2004 and were under the management of Arsene Wenger.
An even bigger pull for Wright-Phillips would have been that his father, Ian Wright, famously played for the Gunners and was their record goalscorer until later in 2005, when Thierry Henry broke the record.
However, reigning champions Chelsea would eventually sign him in a £21 million deal in July, with the winger becoming one of Jose Mourinho‘s first signings that summer.
Speaking to Ladbrokes, Wright-Phillips has stated that he didn’t initially want to leave City at all – but factors outside of his control forced the move to happen.
At this point, City were still over three years away from being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group, and two years away from the club being purchased by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Sinawatra.
Prior to then, City were a publicly traded company listed on an independent equity market, and having only been promoted back to the Premier League three years earlier, were not exactly full of cash.
Wright-Phillips explained: “The summer I left, I’d heard that Arsenal were interested. And there were some inquiries into that between the two clubs, from what I remember.
“I was asked, ‘Would I go’, and I just said no – I was a kid! It wasn’t about leaving City to play for a bigger team. I was just happy where I was.”
He continued: “I said to my agent that I’m happy where I am, but then he told me I didn’t really have a choice. He didn’t explain all the details behind it.
“He said that we didn’t really have a choice, but that we’re waiting to see what Arsene Wenger’s going to say. And then he said that he would like me, but that we’d have to wait until January.
“Then Chelsea just bid, Man City accepted it and then I just had to leave.
“It was only a few months later I found out that if they didn’t sell me, if they didn’t get that fee, the club was going to go into administration. So that was the reason why I left.”
Wright-Phillips would go on to only score four Premier League goals in three seasons for Chelsea before returning to City in 2008 for a fee believed to be around £8.5 million – significantly lower than the amount Chelsea paid to sign him.
It is not the first time Wright-Phillips has made the claim that City could have gone into administration.
Speaking on ‘Seaman Says’ – the podcast of former Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman – in January, he said: “City were going into administration, which I didn’t know.
“I only found out like four to six months after that they had to sell me, otherwise the club would have gone into administration.”
