Wright can exploit demand for vintage models

Glenn Moore looks at why the market for the more mature player is growing

Hughesie went in the summer, Rushie's on the move, now Wrightie wants away. The living legends are on the march, zimmer frames to the fore, and there are plenty of clubs offering to top up the pension.

There has always been a trade in classics: Sir Stanley Matthews was 46 when Blackpool sold him to Stoke for pounds 2,500 in 1961; Lawrie McMenemy built a collection at Southampton in the Seventies; recently though, it seems every purchase is either a foreign model or a vintage one.

One reason for this is that players are lasting longer (Sir Stanley was an exception). Gordon Strachan, Ray Wilkins (both 39) and Mick Harford (37) are still performing in the Premiership, while Peter Beardsley and Steve Bruce are contesting the Premiership title at 35. This is partly to do with diet, especially in the case of Strachan, and partly to do with the rewards now available.

"In our time we played for enjoyment," Terry Venables said last week. "Now they know if they look after themselves and get an extra three or four years, it could be worth another pounds 3m. I saw the difference in the way they looked after themselves in Spain. They know they have a period of time to achieve great things and they give themselves every opportunity to do it."

Ian Wright looks after himself. Having came late into the game, from non-League, his body is likely to survive longer than many. While Ian Rush, like Mark Hughes, is moving because he could not secure a first- team place, Wright appears to have fallen out with Bruce Rioch, the Arsenal manager. He may be seeking one final signing-on fee, although he has a good contract with Arsenal, but it is just as likely that he feels unloved and does not believe he can win that elusive championship medal, the one honour he still craves, at Highbury.

"My motivation is to win things and be with a successful club," he has said. "I thought after that, all the monetary things would follow, and they have."

This is the case for most players coming into the game. It is only after they have achieved some measure of glory, and the prospect of retirement begins to loom, that they begin thinking of that final move.

The famous are better off financially going to Japan, as Gary Lineker did. Those that stay here are best served by a free transfer (awarded if a new contract offer does not equal the expired one). Rush, like Ruud Gullit, will be able to name his own price in wages and signing-on fee as his next club will not be spending millions to buy him.

While a fifth of the 2,000 players are granted a free transfer at the end of the season, few will be in Rush's position - half will drift out of the professional game completely. Some of those will be players who still have plenty to offer but have neither need, nor inclination, to drop down the leagues.

Such is the disparity in wages, the only reason the likes of Wright would be seen at grounds like Plainmoor is as a player-manager - like Jan Molby at Swansea. It has taken Paul Stewart, for example, two years to find a First Division club capable of luring him from Liverpool reserves.

For the lower division journeyman, the need for a final signing-on fee is greater. After a career earning pounds 20,000pa maximum, they are not going to be rich, neither will there be many coaching opportunities. Money now takes precedence over glory - Second Division Wycombe lost one such player this summer to a better offer from a Third Division club.

In time, the market will be entirely on the side of the best players. In the wake of the Bosman ruling, one commentator has suggested that one day players could be freelances, playing for Liverpool one week, Arsenal the next, on short contracts. This may be laughable, but under European law, it is conceivable.

Meanwhile, Wright could be up for grabs. At pounds 2m-plus he is expensive for a 32-year-old, but already a queue is forming. Three years ago, Newcastle's chairman, Sir John Hall, balked at paying pounds 1.35m for the then 32-year- old Peter Beardsley, but trusted Kevin Keegan's judgement. Everton were delighted, but with hindsight, it is not hard to see which club made the better deal.