Arsenal legend Ian Wright has laid into City’s hierarchy, claiming that they are not showing his adopted son Shaun Wright-Phillips the respect he deserves.
But while fatherly concern in seeing his son sign a new contract seems a sincere motive for this outburst, there may be other reasons lying beneath the surface.
Firstly, its not as if Wright-Phillips has no future in the game as his current contract finishes in August 2012 after he signed a four year deal on his return to the club in 2008.
Nor is Wright-Phillips likely to want for anything after his career comes to an end. He has had a superb career to date with high profile moves to both glamour clubs Chelsea and City swelling the coffers in his bank account and making him a multimillionaire.
Of course, one can never have enough millions and due to Wright-Phillips signing before the Arab takeover, his contract will undoubtedly seem meagre (to him) in comparison to those who signed thereafter like Tevez, Adebayor and Kolo Toure.
His brother and father haven’t exactly done badly either meaning the family itself has amassed millions from the glorious game.
Wright doesn’t go into specifics of the contract on offer and rightly so, but does talk about Marwood and Cook insinuating that the way they are dealing with a player who is Blue through and through is both arrogant and condescending.
Now taking the money and contract negotiations out of the equation, one thing that does stick out is Wright’s final comments about Shaun making the world cup squad.
After failing to make any of the national teams squads for a world cup finals could it be that Wrighty is more anxious himself about his son missing the world cup finals and the pain that goes hand in hand in it.
No doubt Wright is living his dreams through his son still and his sharp and insightful punditry would certainly be more in demand over in South Africa if his son was in the team.
Is Wright-Phillips’ so beat up about this contract issue that it is affecting his performances and jeopardising his place on the plane to South Africa?
After all, the race for that England right spot is as hotly contested and stressful as the race for that Champions League final space and the same teams are involved in Tottenham, Villa and City.
Or is this just an unsubtle PR guilt trip by his outspoken adopted father in an effort to force the new and improved contract through more quickly by making it public knowledge?
Here’s what Wrighty said: ‘I tell you what was really awkward, they called him in and he wants to sign his deal, wants to sign for the rest of his career so he can be settled and get ready to go (to the World Cup in South Africa).
Worry
‘But there’s these people like (football administration officer) Brian Marwood and (chief executive) Garry Cook mugging him off, treating him like a youth-team player and not someone who actually wants to be there because of what he thinks Manchester City can do.’
Wright added: ‘When you have people like Marwood and Cook, who for me are just a bit full of themselves(pot kettle), I’m not sure they know exactly what they are doing deep down so I’m just a bit worried about that.
‘I would love him to be settled so he could just concentrate on getting City into the top four, which would be brilliant for all of them.
‘That’s what he wants to do and then God willing he can end up getting on the plane and going to the World Cup, doing well for England and everything would be great.
‘That’s what I would like to happen. But you know how football is, it’s different from one week to the next.’
Does Shaun Wright-Phillips deserve a new stellar contract on this season’s performances?
Surely if he gets his head down and improves his performances, he will be selected for an England team with an outside chance at glory.
If he is part of that success then the ‘other’ things will surely be just a formality.
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