Growing up my older brother had a picture of David Rocastle on his bedroom wall. Torn out a magazine & pinned proudly with Blu Tack. By the time he moved out the ink had faded under the sun & the blu had bled right through the paper. The article was titled My Hero Rocky and featured the iconic 'thumbs up' image of David in our 90/92 home kit. I searched for the story behind the image but found only tributes & testimonials. Some pieces talked about his legacy, like how our youth academy is named The David Rocastle Centre. Many likened Rocastle's skills to a Brazilian midfielder, back in the days where that distinction meant something. But they all talk about the man - the common thread being how much he truly loved his club. "I struggle to think of any Arsenal player who loved the club more." Ultimately, this is the reason Rocky's name is still sung to this day.
We've all heard the stories about Rocky & Wrighty. How when Wright finally signed for the club, all them years after his young friend from Brockley, they stayed up at David's until four in the morning talking everything AFC. Ian didn't become a fan of the club that day he signed. It was more ethereal than that. It was the day his mate joined the youth academy, the day he watched him sign his first pro contract, and it was cemented the first time the Brockley Brothers stepped out onto the Highbury carpet together. It's my belief as a fan that Wright always carries this thought with him. Our old no.8 talks about The Arsenal with such unique reverence you get the sense that he does it, in some part at least, to honour David's memory. It's never the manager's legacy he's protecting, or even his own. It's his best mate's.
My brother's hero may have been Rocky but I was born in the '92, so mine's Wrighty. Football fans with the ignorant perversity to support someone else might cite that Wright left us when I was only five. Luckily such narrow-mindedness has been protected from the marble halls. Ten days after my 5th birthday Sir Ian Wright of Brockley scored his 179th (and 180th... and 181st) goal for The Arsenal at Highbury to become an eternal people's champion. The unifier of the stands. The man so nice they sing it thrice. He whipped off his top and showcased exactly why everyone watching would love him for forever more. No, not a sponsored vest but his inability to hide his feelings. If he told me he had three wangs I would believe him. The man cannot lie. It's why we all believe him when he says it was a dream come true or simply that he loves the club. When a new signing says it's a dream come true, you get the feeling that they're reading a script. When Ian Wright tells you, it comes straight from the heart.
I understand that the team could not win the league for me last season but how could they not do it for Ian? Wrighty's infectious, enduring optimism should have been motivation enough for our group of youngsters. I want two A1 size framed posters of Ian Wright OBE in our dressing room for every game next season. One after Neilson scored that 97th minute winner and the other following the City defeat months later. He rightfully carries the title Club Ambassador but then again so does Drake at the Toronto Raptors. If The King is handing him honors then so should the club. Club Mensch?.. Nah. Spirit of North London?... Better but still missing something. The Arsenal Numina.
Do you know what nemesis means? I mean numina, cause I didn't.
noun: numen; plural noun: numina
the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place.
(I used the plural as he carries Rocky in everything he does.) (And it sounds cooler.)
Ian Wright OBE - services to The Arsenal. I think The King might have mistakenly put it down as 'services to football and charity'. A bit like when Pete Tong got his for services to music. Really it was DJ Peter Tong - services to House.
I don't like the term fan. It implies that there was some choice involved. If I wanted to be happy I would follow The Saracens or Eurovision. My old man is Islington born and bred. Like so many others, our family moved further north as the cost of living in London priced them out. So my brothers and I grew up in the Nether-Zone. Also known as Zone 10 if you're TFL or Watford if you're people. Dad always told me I had two choices. "You can support Watford, your local team. Or you can support The Arsenal, Arsenal are in your blood." I'm sure my non-existent psychiatrist might think this is relevant so I should mention that my dad looks exactly like the white Ian Wright.
My Dad is the one on the left. And yes, those are his normal clothes. The only game I can remember us going together was an Arsenal reserves game at Vicarage Road. Dad dragged me away from the action early in the first half so he could sneak a fag. We were loitering near the access gates in the corner of the ground when a slightly lost looking Arsene Wenger approached. "Excuse me sir?" Dad turns around and blurts out an impulsive "Alright there sunshine!" Wenger laughed. Whatever Arsene had planned on asking the old man he rightly decided Dad did not have the answer. But he noticed me a few yards back dumbfounded and so took the time to show my father some respect by shaking his hand and asking "How are you sir?" "Oh me? I'm always good." Wenger laughed again and goes "I never knew Ian had a twin brother." Alright, alright. He just let out an enthusiastic "Good!" Dad just winked at me and sparked a fag. He was my hero until some teenager in a hi-vis asked him to put it out 30 seconds later. Mum always referred to Wenger as God because the level of awe me and brother had for the man was beyond human. "Dad! You can't call Arsene Wenger sunshine!" "It's alright" he assured me "We go way back."
There's a humility tethered to the success of the Arsenal greats. None more so than Ian Wright, he is everything every footballer should be but they're not. Maybe it's because he's the only England footballer to truly give up on the sport before making it and work a proper job. It's not nothing that he worked in a factory either, a working class job, the same job of people who would go on to sing his name. It might be one thing Wrighty had that Rocastle didn't - that sheer disbelief that he had been chosen to play for us. You could see it in his celebrations back then and you can see it in his passionate punditry now. Ian Wright played for Club & Country on behalf of everyone who dreamed they had but got a real job instead. He did it for all of us.
I'd like to see the gunner who illustrates the Arsenal fanzine 'Poison Lasagna' create their own version of the Thumbs Up photo. Except this is from behind, so you can see is Rocastle 7 on his back and his thumb raised firmly in the air. Beyond Rocky you can see everyone who remembers him. Managers, staff, players: past and present. His family, friends. The fans throughout the decades and of course Ian Wright. All with tears in their eyes. These are not sad tears, they're happy. Everyone believes he is doing it especially for them.
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