“And I just carried on playing football” - Ex-Chelsea star opens up on how Arsenal approached him before joining Blues

Shaun Wright-Phillips has stated that he had come close to joining Arsenal before making his move to Chelsea. The former Blues winger claimed that the Gunners wanted him to wait until January, but he was forced to move in the summer of 2005.

Speaking on the Seaman Says podcast, Wright-Phillips said he needed to leave Manchester City as the club was going into administration. He added that he was set on staying with the Cityzens, but the club accepted Chelsea's offer. He said (via TBR Football):

"City was going into administration, which I didn't know. So when they first asked me, my agents, I just said, no, I'm fine. I'm happy where I am, sort of thing. I just kind of just left it like that. But the first conversation that came in was that Arsenal were interested in buying you. And I was just like, they said, they'll let me know a bit more."

"And I just carried on playing football. And then the longer it went on, they said, they don't want you until January. But it didn't, it didn't bother me because I wasn't thinking about moving anyway. Yeah, my heart was set on staying with City. So I didn't think about it. It's just like, it's nice. I take it as a compliment sort of thing. And just wanted to just get better and better. And then Chelsea came in and they just said, right, deal's been accepted."

Shaun Wright-Phillips played 125 matches for Chelsea before moving back to Manchester City. He played for QPR, Phoenix Rising FC, and New York Red Bulls before calling it time on his career.

Shaun Wright-Phillips admitted he would have prefered Arsenal move over Chelsea

In December 2024, Shaun Wright-Phillips also spoke about the possible move to Arsenal and admitted that he would have preferred joining the Gunners over Chelsea. He was talking to SportCasting when he claimed that there was no push from Arsene Wenger and said (via FourFourTwo):

"There was an opportunity to join Arsenal. They were the first movers in terms of when I first left City. It was something that the club had to make happen in terms of they would have gone into administration if they didn't sell me. So, if Arsene Wenger had just said 'Okay, we will take him now,' I most probably would have played for Arsene rather than Jose Mourinho at Chelsea."

Shaun Wright-Phillips added that Ian Wright, his father, wanted to get the deal over the line and was not happy with the move to Chelsea.