Ian Wright is an Arsenal legend; I became aware of him mostly through his recent work with Arsenal as an ambassador. He is a great link between the club and the fans. His journey from a South London council estate to national treasure is everybody's dream. From Sunday morning football directly to Crystal Palace; from 'boring, boring Arsenal' to inside the Wenger Revolution; from Saturday afternoons on the pitch to Saturday evenings on primetime television; from a week in prison to inspiring youth offenders, Ian will reveal all about his extraordinary life and career. Striking Out will be published by Scholastic UK in September 2021 and is aimed at children aged nine-plus.

Wrighty's characteristic honesty means his book is far more engrossing than most bland football memoirs.' - Sunday Times His journey from a South London council estate to national treasure is everybody’s dream. From Sunday morning football directly to Crystal Palace; from ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ to inside the Wenger Revolution; from Saturday afternoons on the pitch to Saturday evenings on primetime television; from a week in prison to inspiring youth offenders, Ian will reveal all about his extraordinary life and career. In football, the biggest battles that you fight will always be far away from the pitch,” Wright said.I can’t take people who just sit there pointing their finger [saying] Héctor Bellerín shouldn’t be saying that,” says Wright. “Football and politics are always linked. Why shouldn’t he, somebody who is affected by the government, have an opinion on Boris? Wrighty’s characteristic honesty means his book is far more engrossing than most bland football memoirs’ Sunday Times As time went by we spoke,” he says, slowly wringing his hands: “She said she had her own problems as well. Whatever her problems were I always wanted to find out, but she was never forthcoming. She didn’t want to speak about those things. I’m not going to put a spotlight on her. I learned to deal with it myself because at the end of the day, you can only heal yourself.” He was advised, he says, that “management is really tough. ‘Why do you want to do that? Television’s waiting.’ And I listened. That’s the only thing I regret.” Most of all, he remembers the day his stepdad tried to strangle his mum. “She was trying to say ‘sorry’ when he had his hands around her throat,” he recalls. “You think to yourself is she going to be OK because she’s so small. It made me feel so helpless.” Mum was often stepdad’s punchbag, one time sporting a cut below one eye. .

In the wake of the incident, Gary Neville suggested Boris Johnson had fuelled racism with his rhetoric. Although Wright doesn’t disagree, he’s not sure how helpful this is. “Boris Johnson may be involved in some way, just because it’s intrinsically linked with the things he says and what he does. But you can’t really point at one person.”You want to see footballers have more of an opinion,” Wright insists. “Hector used his platform to ask young people to vote. To have a say in what happens in your country. Is that a bad thing? You can’t win.” Then there was the recollection of the domestic violence suffered by his mother at the hands of his stepfather, a pain that was triggered, as it was always triggered for him, by the first bars of the Ike and Tina Turner song River Deep – Mountain High, one of his chosen discs, a record that always caused his mother to break down. “My stepfather was a big, growly voiced, gambling, weed-smoking, angry man, who frightened me,” Wright said. “My mum was four foot 11 and he was six four. I saw what he did to her. When he used to be manhandling my mum my brother would cover my ears, so I couldn’t hear it.”

It’s really strange [that absence],” Wright says. “Because even though he was never around, and I never knew him, I used to think about him all the time. And because my stepdad was how he was, I’d think about him even more. Not really comparing them. More: ‘Why isn’t he here to protect me? Why doesn’t he like me?’” Off the pitch for some of his years at Arsenal, things were less harmonious; his swift fame and commercial success (including the lucrative sponsorship from Nike) took its toll. “I got caught up with people who didn’t have my best interests at heart,” says Wright. “I got caught up with women who were using me. I got caught up with believing the hype, just because I was playing great football. You kind of get into this hedonistic mindset where you think everything’s just amazing, you could do anything you want, like you’re breathing different air.”Wright’s record on the pitch in the years that followed propelled him to the status of club legend, then national hero. He won numerous trophies with Arsenal and became its record scorer, with 185 goals (only beaten by Thierry Henry in 2005). As one Nike billboard slogan had it: “Behind every great goalkeeper there’s a ball from Ian Wright.” I never had the kind of tactile love my missus and I give to my girls now,” he says. “Being hugged wasn’t something I remember happening a lot,” he says. Although he loved Maurice, he never bonded with his other siblings. His stepfather – who he has described as a weed-smoking, gambling womaniser – was cruel and neglectful to Wright (“ He was rough with my mum and rough with all of us kids,” he told the Players’ Tribune), while his mother rarely showed him support or affection. Yet there was one adult who did take an interest in Wright’s early development: his teacher, Sydney Pigden. For a time, he was the only positive male role model in Wright’s life and would tell Wright to overcome the “red mist” by counting to 10 (“It always made me smile because, when I was young, it never worked”). His upbringing has undoubtedly affect Ian throughout his life and his mother and step-father should be ashamed of how he was brought up. It is incredible to think he still made sure his mother never had a worry in the world after he became and pro and shows how kind Ian Wright has become despite all odds. As Wright closes the door to the house in Merritt Road for the last time, he says: “There’s no love here, that’s for sure.” Oh, but there was once. Little Maurice would place his hands over Ian’s ears to stop him hearing his stepdad punch and strangle his mother.