Described by the City manager who gave him is debut -  Joe Royle - as a player ‘to bring a smile to the face,’ Shaun Wright-Phillips certainly did that during his first spell at City from 1999-2005.

He was snapped up by the Academy when he was released by Nottingham Forest in 1996 and proved to be the soundest of investments as the Blues pocketed £21million when he went to Chelsea in 2005!

During his time at Stamford Bridge, Shaun won all three domestic competitions, the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup but never really managed to hold down a permanent place in the starting XI.

Finally in August 2008 Mark Hughes paid around £9million to bring Wright-Phillips ‘home’ and he capped his return with two goals on his ‘second debut’ against Sunderland.

His fine form continued, with a recall to the England squad coming in early October. In addition to all his trademark tricks, he seemed to have added a muscular edge to his game and coped well with all the close attention paid to him by the opposition and ended the campaign with eight goals and just 14 starts short of 200 for the Blues.

The following 2009-10 season proved tougher for Shaun, who started regularly under Mark Hughes but found extra competition with the arrival of Adam Johnson in the January window. Nevertheless, he made Fabio Capello's World Cup training squad.