City struggles rob Wright - Phillips
Kevin Keegan believes Shaun Wright-Phillips would have been a certain winner of the PFA Young Player of the Year award if it had not been for Manchester City’s Barclaycard Premiership struggles this season.
The England Under-21s player will line up against Newcastle at Eastlands tomorrow, six days after finishing runner-up to Chelsea’s Scott Parker at the prestigious ceremony.
Wright-Phillips’ performances have been one of the few highlights from a torrid season which has yet to see City safe from relegation.
Former England coach Keegan said: “Success brings awards. If you are part of a winning team everything is highlighted that little bit more.
“Shaun has had a very good season in a side that hasn’t had good results.
“He is one of the first names on my team sheet, which shows what he has achieved already. But it is not about what he has achieved – it is what he will achieve, because there is so much more in front of him.”
Drafted into the England senior squad for the first time for last month’s friendly in Sweden, only to miss out on selection through injury, Wright-Phillips has just three more games to impress Sven-Goran Eriksson - starting with tomorrow’s home clash with Newcastle.
He remains an outsider for a ticket to the European Championships, but Keegan is certain his first cap will not be long in arriving.
“He wants to do well, which is a major asset,” he said.
“Shaun doesn’t always pick things up easily but he keeps working at them.
“He is not the finished article yet but once it all drops into place he will play many times for England in quite a few different positions if the manager wants him to.”
The winger has already attracted the attention of Arsenal and Liverpool, and if City were to drop out of the top flight his departure would be almost inevitable.
However, optimism around the Blues is greater than it has been for some time - even though they have now won just twice in 24 league outings.
Leeds’ home defeat to Portsmouth last weekend means City cannot fall into the bottom three this weekend.
Victory for City would consign Wolves and Leicester to the Nationwide League and leave Leeds requiring an unlikely seven points from three games to preserve their top-flight status.
Keegan remains cautious and has felt the need to warn his players against the dangers of complacency.
“Leeds can only afford to lose one more game and they still have two away fixtures to play, while we have two at home,” he told www.mcfc.co.uk.
“It means we are in the driving seat, but we mustn’t get complacent about the situation.
Keegan is again likely to be without Steve McManaman, who is struggling to recover from the hamstring injury which forced him to miss last Saturday’s stormy draw at Leicester.
In McManaman’s continued absence, the City boss could be tempted to stick with the side that started at the Walkers Stadium – which would be bad news for Robbie Fowler who failed to even make it on to the bench.
