Man City have signed Shaun Wright-Phillips for an undisclosed fee from Chelsea. A figure of £9 million is being reported, despite City earning £21 million when he joined the Stamford Bridge club three years ago.
Wright-Phillips enjoyed limited opportunities at Chelsea – although he appeared 125 times for the London club, he gained just 43 Premiership starts. Those stats have clearly limited his fantasy returns and his potential to fantasy managers. However, today’s transfer could well put his career back on track and make him a far more attractive fantasy proposition.
The midfielder is due to be presented at a press conference on Friday and could be in line for a debut at Sunderland on Sunday.
Wright-Phillips made his debut for City in the 2000-01 season but his first full season came in the Championship in 2001-02 where he notched 8 goals in 31 appearances. He followed this up with a modest first season in the Premiership with returns of 1 goal and 3 assists in 31 appearances. From that point on things took off as Wright-Phillips enjoyed greater success in 2003-04, scoring 7 goals and 2 assists in 34 games and in 2004-05 he hauled in 10 goals in 6 assists in 34 games. That success attracted the attentions of Chelsea and led to the big money move to London.
Fantasy managers will hope to see Wright-Phillips recall the kind of form which saw him hit the heights of 10 Premiership goals. Certainly he’ll be alongside some decent attacking players in a City side that now appears to have a good balance with Petrov on the opposite flank and the likes of Elano and Ireland providing through-balls for Jo up front.
The Brazilian striker, he made his debut for City this evening against FC Midtjylland, could now gain more suitors given the likely service he can expect from either flank
A mid-price option across the games – Wright-Phillips offers an alternative to Elano and Petrov in the City lineup. The move coincides with a better period of fixtures for Mark Hughes’ side with City travelling to Sunderland this weekend, followed by home games with Chelsea and Portsmouth and a trip to Wigan at the end of September.
Wright-Phillips is not a natural winger – he will spend his time coming in field to join attacks and should contribute goals as a result. He is currently priced at 7.5 in the Fantasy Premier League game – the same price as team-mate Petrov.