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Birthdate:
01.08.1963
Birthplace: Dorchester, England
Other clubs: Oxford, Southampton, Derby
Bought from: Derby
Signed for LFC: £2200000 15.07.1991
International debut: 02.05.1984 vs. Wales
International caps: 45/1 (5/0 at LFC) - 18.05.1996
Liverpool debut:
17.08.1991
Last appearance: 20.09.1997
Debut goal: 01.09.1992
Last goal: 24.04.1997
Contract expiry: 01.08.1998
LFC league games/goals: 158 / 5
Total LFC games/goals: 210 / 9
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Player Notes:
Mark Wright had been one of England's best performers during the World cup in 1990 and his star was shining bright both for Derby and England. Derby had shattered their transfer record to buy Wright from the Saints for £760,000 in August 1987. Souness brought Wright to Anfield to become Liverpool's defensive lynchpin. Wright did not have happy memories of Liverpool as Southampton had finished League runners-up three points behind the Reds in the historic 1983-84 season and he broke his leg after a clash with Bruce Grobbelaar in the 1986 FA Cup semi-final which Liverpool won 2-0. Souness named him captain in the absence of Ronnie Whelan, resulting in him lifting the FA Cup trophy at the end of his first season. His Liverpool career did however not get off to the best of starts, he got injured only two games into the season and was sidelined for 3 months. After a run of bad results in October the following season, Wright lost his place to Torben Piechnik along with his captaincy and had to settle for the bench. He returned in December and stayed in the starting line-up for the majority of the games until the end of the season.
The 1993/94 season was the last of Souness' reign and almost became Wright's last season as well. He had not played since March because of injuries and in pre-season 1994, Evans criticized his poor form and attitude publicly. Wright returned in the 1995/96 season, clearly rejuvenated. His performances were of such high calibre that he made an unexpected return to the England national team at the age of 33, but an injury ruled him out of Euro 96 at the last minute. He was a master of bringing the ball out of defence and dominant in the air. Unfortunately his injuries caught up with him in 1998 and he had to retire from the game, after enjoying the best two-year spell of his career.
Mark's managerial career started with a brief spell at Conference club Southport before in June 2001 he was appointed manager of his first professional club as a player, Oxford United. But only a few months after his arrival at Oxford, he was sacked following an allegation that he had racially abused a match official. His next appointment was at another Conference club, Chester City. He steered them away from a possible relegation to the Northern Premier League and turned the club's fortunes round so much that they returned to the Football League as Conference champions in 2004. But just two days before Chester were due to play their first match in the Football League for four years, Wright resigned. A month later he became Peterborough's manager but early in 2006 he was suspended then subsequently sacked for 'gross misconduct' reasons. He rejoined Chester shortly after leaving Peterborough and his reward for helping the club avoid a second relegation to the Conference in 2006 was a two-year contract. However, results were so poor in the first of those two seasons that the Chester chairman dismissed Mark Wright with one League match remaining.
Amazingly, in November 2008, Wright was given a third opportunity to manage Chester City. At the end of a disastrous season that ended in relegation, the initial signs were that the manager would stay to help the club regain its Football League status. However, seven weeks after relegation was confirmed, the manager resigned, declaring that "the difficulties faced by the club made it impossible for me to create the type of team I would wish to take forward". Those difficulties included the prospect of starting the 2009-2010 season with a ten-point penalty after going into administration, as well as releasing a dozen players since the start of the calendar year, amongst whom was the club's top scorer.
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