Shame

Initial reaction is pathetic but he may have a deep routed physiological condition which deserves our sympathy.

A real shame. He has a real talent.

Not sure why it hasn't worked out for him.

Left us to early the bright lights of london oh well the bloke is a millonaire you seen his place at westerfield in the last few seasons bench warming for a feckin good wage

I think Wright's career is one of sadder stories I have known in my time following football. He was so utterly brilliant for us as a youngster. His save at Wembley is one of my favourite Town memories. But somehow it all went wrong: he made the wrong choices, never got the right advice, and now it ends with him being dropped as the Sheff Utd reserve keeper, when I would have put money on him being the England regular for a decade (and, Heaven knows, we could have done with a consistence keeper over the period!). Very sad.

wrong footballing choices, right financial ones, how many properties does he own now? He is well and truly sorted for life

When I saw this thread I felt compelled to comment.

Then I read the posts of others and when I got to arc's one I realised that someone else had already crystalised everything that I wanted to say...

A very sad story indeed...

Its always sad to see one of our own failing was a fantastic prospect I rember George Burley telling him do not go to Arsenal you will be number 2 to Englands number one shame he didnt listen he was doomed from that moment. Best of luck Richard would be great to see him come back here as a youth coach or something.

Cheers for reminding me about the 2000 play-off final Wembley save arc - brightened up my day no end!

Real shame that Wrights career took a downward spiral since he left us though, methinks he will have to drop down the leagues if he want to keep on playing...

exetrblu - don't think he would last many Sunday morning matches let alone lower professional leagues, seems his days of professional football may well be over!

argh, what a shame :(

And to think we got in Matteo Sereni to replace him ....

It's always a shame when someone doesn't fulfill their potential and Wrighty clearly had bags of that, mind you he wasn't the first and he won't be the last.

Sign him up!

Probably earned well in excess of £10 million during his career, I really wouldnt feel too sorry for him.

Some professional failures on the playing side, but thats not to say he's not got a great life. There are sadder stories out there!!

Interesting that in the 10 years since leaving ITFC first time around he has only made less than 80 appearance for other clubs.

12 apps for arsenal.

60 apps for Everton.

Plus Southampton and Sheff Utd.

Very strange that he was subbed in his two appearances for the Blades. VERY rare that a keeper is subbed.

Forgot to add!

Still one of our best ever keepers first time around. Thanks for the memories.

Prob wouldve put up a better fight against relegation in 2001/02 if he had stayed.

Sign him up - Local lad, great keeper and better than Furlop

arc :- Think you said it all. A sad day indeed.

Sadly I think this is the end of the road for Wright's career.

If he wants to keep playing, he'll find a club.

Somethings gone serious wrong for Wrighty if he gets sub'd on both occations he gets into the team. Suggests something other than physical to me. May be barking up the wrong tree, but how often do you hear of a GK being subbed? And to have it happen 2x in his only 2 games? Very strange and very sad, as others have said.

After spending £6M on him, Arsenal should have put him straight into their starting 11 instead of pointlessly extending Seaman's career for another 12 months.

Wright's never recovered from that year on the bench and Arsenal still haven't found another keeper as good as him.

My best memory of Wrighty was his world-class performance in the 1-0 FA Cup win over Blackburn in the late 90s.

arc - couldn't agree more!

In truth, I don't think Wrighty ever 'recovered' from being dropped for the Cup Final by Wenger having played every round to get them there. Scandalous!

I'll never forget a one handed save he made at Bristol City which earned us a 1-0 win, the power of the shot was unbelievable and it was a magnificent effort from Wrighty, we went on to win the game 1-0.
The kid was class, he just made the wrong choice football wise to go when he did, 1 or 2 people on here saying he's loaded why worry about him, he could be a lot richer if he'd been England's keeper for the last decade which he should have been, he was the best at the time, such a wasted talent.

I'm not sure what to say Wright....
3 things...
1) Either you've got some serious issues
2) You're a clever - lazy individual
3) You're just some bizzare freak....
....either way - pretty damn weird....don't come back to Ipswich, cheers