It’s incredible to think that Ian Wright, a striker blessed with razor-sharp finishing ability, explosive pace and a natural instinct for finding the net with both feet, didn’t sign a professional contract until the comparatively late age of 22, when he put pen to paper for Crystal Palace.

Wright’s eventual elevation to superstardom at Arsenal, where he remains our second-highest goalscorer of all time, was shaped by a unique set of circumstances and professional relationships both before and during a six-year spell at Selhurst Park.

As Wrighty attempted to make it as a professional, Arsenal midfielder David Rocastle, though four years younger, was always his biggest champion. The two grew up together on the Honor Oak Estate in Brockley, south London, sharing dreams of football stardom. Yet whereas Rocastle was a child prodigy who joined Arsenal at 15 and made his first-team debut at 18, Wright faced rejection from clubs including Millwall and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Rocastle encouraged him to persevere, reassuring him that the clubs that had overlooked him were making a mistake. Wright has often said their bond was more than friendship: it was brotherhood.

Whilst playing semi-professional football for Greenwich Borough in 1985, Wright...