Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, has expressed his disappointment with Shaun Wright-Phillips's decision to go public with his grievances about the club's reluctance to give him the £25m contract that he wants.
Wright-Phillips, who will have two years remaining on his £60,000-a-week deal at the end of the season, has turned down City's offer of a year-long extension and a pay rise to £70,000-a-week. The England international has asked for a five‑year contract with a weekly salary closer to £100,000 and City's refusal to accept those demands led to him criticising them in a specially arranged interview with The Sun last week, breaking a club rule that players should speak to the media only with prior permission.
Wright-Phillips's complaints about being unfairly treated in relation to some of his better-paid team-mates were preceded by his father, the former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright, castigating City's chief executive, Garry Cook, and the football administrator, Brian Marwood, for "mugging off" his son and treating him "like a youth-team player".
The personal nature of that attack – Wright also said of Cook and Marwood that "they don't know what they are doing" – has gone down badly at City, where the feeling is that Wright-Phillips is being badly advised not just by his father but also by his agent, the former Tottenham player Mitchell Thomas.
"I am happy with Shaun because he always gives 100%, but I would prefer it if the player speaks to me rather than the newspapers," Mancini said. "Shaun has never spoken to me about it once. If a player speaks with me it's much better for everyone – the player, me, the club. I have no problem with Shaun but it's now in the newspapers that there are problems."
The problem for Wright-Phillips is largely one of timing, given that he rejoined City from Chelsea in the days before the Abu Dhabi United Group's takeover established a new pay ceiling at the club, but his demands have surprised the men in power at Eastlands given that he will be 30 when his current deal expires and has had an inconsistent season so far.
Depicting himself as feeling under-appreciated and hard done by, Wright‑Phillips also complained that he had been asked to play while carrying an injury, but Mancini said he did not know if that was true: "For me there is no problem."
Wright-Phillips's interview was deliberately timed on the back of him scoring a substitute's goal for England in their 3-1 defeat of Egypt but the club's management think the player should re-assess his priorities.
City go to Sunderland on Sundayon Sunday in a strong position to finish the season in fourth place and qualify for the Champions League and Mancini said: "We have an important target and, when we reach that target, then we can talk about contracts. What is important now is that Shaun plays very well for the team. The important thing is the team. We have time to discuss his contract later."
