Playing under trailblazer Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold, the longest-serving manager in Australia's history, Socceroo Bailey Wright has had experience with two of the more historically significant coaches in Australian football. The Lion City Sailors defender with 29 international caps recently spoke to Front Page Football to discuss his time representing Australia, his aspirations to don the green and gold again, and what it was like to work under Postecoglou and Arnold, respectively.
Bailey Wright plays his club football for Singapore Premier League side Lion City Sailors. (Image supplied by Lion City Sailors)
Born in Melbourne, Bailey Wright spent most of his career in the English Championship for clubs such as Preston North End, Sunderland, and Bristol City. The 32-year-old defender moved to Asia last year and now plays his club football for Lion City Sailors. He is one of the biggest names in the Singapore Premier League, helping the Sailors achieve success domestically and be competitive continentally in the Asian Champions League Two.
At the international level, Wright has not featured for the Socceroos since March 2023, despite his years of experience in major tournaments and participation in do-or-die intercontinental clashes. His last cap for the green and gold came in a 2-1 loss to Ecuador in Melbourne. Since that window, the defender has not been involved in the national team setup; however, if given the opportunity, he would love to return.
“My career (international) is still not done, in my opinion,” Wright told Front Page Football.
“I wanted to be in an Asian Cup winning squad, but unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for me. Timing, injuries, and form; it hasn’t really worked out over the last three Asian Cups, so I would love to be part of one of them. I still set my bar high.
“I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, and I hope there is more, but there are a lot of good Australian players around the world. There are a lot of boys doing some great stuff for their clubs, and I love to see other Aussies do well. I’d obviously love to be back in the squad under new manager Tony Popovic. The Socceroos have had a great start under his reign, and I thought they played incredible in their last two games; obviously, they want to improve every game, but in terms of results and performance, it was a good reaction to what was a tough start.
“I’ve still got expectations that I can pull on that shirt; I’m always ready. It’s important for me that I play well for my club and that I feel well. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, but I’m a big believer that if there’s any chance you get to represent your country, whether that’s on the bench, on the pitch, or just in the group, it’s an honour. It’s something that you’ll never be able to get back. I want to be a part of more special experiences and achievements, and you certainly get that wearing the green and gold.
“Hopefully, there’s more to come. I’m still very driven and hungry to do well. I’m 32 now, and I hope I’ve got many, many years ahead of me. I’m not getting younger, but I still love the game; I love playing football. I’m motivated and passionate, so hopefully, there’s more to come.”
Wright recently scored in the Sailors' Asian Champions League Two draw with Persib Bandung. (Image supplied by Lion City Sailors)
Wright has been one of the biggest exports to the Singaporean first tier and has featured for Lion City Sailors in the Asian Champions League Two and the ASEAN Club Championship. Before signing in Singapore, Wright accumulated more than 400 competitive fixtures for Preston North End, Sunderland, Bristol City, and Rotherham United. His experience abroad helped him earn many caps and be featured in big moments for the Socceroos.
At 22, Wright made his debut for Australia in September 2014 in an international friendly against Saudi Arabia at Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham. The Socceroos secured a 3-2 win, with Wright scoring a goal to help Australia - led by Ange Postecoglou at the time - claim a confidence-boosting victory after finishing last in their group at the 2014 World Cup. His debut was a testament to his patience and determination. Wright had been in the squad for the World Cup in Brazil without stepping onto the pitch.
“It still feels like yesterday; I can remember it well,” Wright said, looking back at his Socceroos debut.
“I had to really be patient to get the chance to make my debut. I eventually got the chance, and from the moment you know you’re in the starting eleven to walking out on the pitch, it feels ridiculously fast. The whole experience; it’s your job [and] your focus is to win the game.
“It was memorable; I scored as well, which was great. But then I had to wait quite a while to get my next chance. But that’s just how football goes; you never know when or where your next chance will come.
"It’s a pinch-yourself moment, you know, as a kid dreaming about scoring a goal for your national team and so on. It still doesn’t feel real, to be honest. Fortunately, Ange (Postecoglou) was the first international manager that gave me my opportunity.”
It’s no secret that current Tottenham Hotspur manager Postecoglou is one of, if not the greatest, coach in Australia's football history. His extensive managerial career spans club and international football, with trophies in Australia, Japan, and Scotland.
Postecoglou remains the only manager in Socceroos history to lift the Asian Cup. Wright was one of the cornerstone players under his reign as Australia's boss. The former Preston North End defender played a significant role in the 2018 World Cup qualifying cycle and also featured in every match of the Socceroos’ 2017 Confederation Cup campaign, which involved matches against Germany, Cameroon, and Chile. Wright described the former Socceroos head coach as an influential and motivational figure within his football career and for others.
“I think not only me but a lot of us learnt a lot from Ange and his staff in the way he wanted to play,” Wright said about working under Postecoglou.
“The belief he had in us, as players and as a team, of what we could get to and what we could achieve, he certainly made you believe more in yourself and your teammates—an incredible manager to play for; I loved my time working under him, as I’m sure the other boys would say the same.
“He created this belief that made you believe in yourself more than anything. What he’s gone on and continued to do in the game probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that’s worked with him. People outside his inner circle might have been surprised, but for everyone that knows him and has worked with him, it’s no surprise to see him where he is. I feel like there is still a lot more to come from him on what he wants to achieve.
“You can never predict where anyone is going to go, but I think you’d know that if he went somewhere, you’d know he’s going to win something and move on to the next and keep going. He’s a top manager for me. Obviously, I’ve not worked with other top managers in the world, but from my experience and how he got the best out of us as a group of players, he made us better as a team. We played good football; he’s world-class, one of the best, and there’s no doubt he can do the same with other big clubs around the world.
“There will be many stories of how he would be able to motivate you as a person and as a group; his motivational talking and his drive and how he inspired us with his words were incredible. You would come out of meetings, and we’d say to each other that we could just run through a brick wall right now because I want to go and play. He knew how to get you ready, hungry, and motivated. He wasn’t the type of manager that you would often have a conversation [with]. But you knew he knew everything about you and how to motivate you, and that was with everyone in the room. He knew what he had to do and how to get the best out of you.
“It’s great to see him doing well, having worked with him and an Aussie doing well. I think it’s great for Australian managers and coaches and Australian football in general; it changes the perspective of Aussies. Hopefully, it opens the door for many other managers in the future, and more people will be open-minded in giving more Aussie coaches and players opportunities because there’s top talent there, coaching and playing wise, and hopefully it opens more doors.”
After Postecoglou stepped down as Socceroos head coach in 2017, Dutch manager Bert Van Marwijk was appointed to lead Australia into the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, during Van Marwijk’s tenure, Wright was frozen out and only featured once in a friendly against Norway, despite playing consistent club football in England. Between the 2018 Norway friendly and mid-2022, Wright only made two appearances for the national team but was an unused substitute several times. In June 2022, he was named in the Socceroos squad to feature in their do-or-die World Cup qualifying clashes against the United Arab Emirates and Peru, respectively. Throughout Graham Arnold's tenure as Socceroos head coach, Wright sporadically featured in squads but was much more valued as a contributor to the national set-up.
Wright praised Arnold’s man management as one of the best he’s been involved in and gave much appreciation to Australia's previous coach, who helped the country progress to the Round of 16 of a FIFA World Cup for the first time since 2006 after the Socceroos finished second in Group D at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“I didn’t have a great experience under Bert (Van Marwijk) at all,” Wright said.
“For whatever reason, he decided not to take me to the 2018 World Cup, which was fine. But I didn’t like the manner in how it was dealt with; I guess that’s not down to me on how that happens, but from a human point of view, it wasn’t great. I don’t think he cared. Arnie (Arnold) was appointed after that World Cup, and I’ve got to say, when he got the job, he gave me a phone call.
“That means a lot to me. The phone call we had was just to say, basically, you're part of the plans and what’s happened in the past; he knew what happened and how that was dealt with. He saw me as part of his plans moving forward. That meant a lot to me and says a lot about Arnie as a person. His man management is top. When the playoffs came up against the UAE and Peru, he felt like he needed to change things. Luckily for me, I was one of those players that got the benefit of that. I felt like I performed and did what he told me to do.”
Despite being thrown in the deep end so late into 2022 World Cup qualifying, especially in a high-stakes period with back-to-back must-win games, Wright played every minute of the matches against the UAE and Peru that saw Australia qualify for Qatar.
Socceroos supporters and the media heavily criticised the national team before the intercontinental playoffs after a poor qualifying campaign. Australia found itself in a situation it had been in many times before - the intercontinental playoffs - with a ticket to the World Cup up for grabs. Under Arnold during the 2022 third-round qualifying stage, the Socceroos started very strong. But they faded, finishing third in Group B before the final matchday following a poor display against Japan in Sydney. Wright explained the man management skills utilised and team spirit Arnold instilled into the players which helped them overcome two tricky opponents.
“Those playoff games, especially before the matches started, there were a lot of people doubting us,” Wright said.
“But I think we were able to show how strong we were, how strong we were together as a team and qualifying for a World Cup is harder than a lot of people tend to think. It is tough because everyone wants to qualify; it means everything for everyone. We silenced a lot of the critics and obviously went on to do good things in the 2022 World Cup. Arnie did an incredible job to bring a whole group of players together.
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“Being part of a World Cup is crazy,” Wright added about his experience at the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar.
“You’re representing your country, family, friends, everything you’ve worked for. You also share it with a group full of people with the same thoughts. The togetherness, the bonds you create. You’re eating together, training together, living together throughout the course of the World Cup and everyone is sharing that same dream.
“We had a real sense of internal expectation and belief that we created as a group, and Arnie obviously was a big driver of that, a big creator of a sense of unity and family that we could be the greatest Socceroos, that we could go on and achieve things that no one believed we could. Just through our togetherness, teamwork, hard work and quality, that was a belief.
“We had regular meetings and discussions, training was competitive, it was driven. The boys kept pushing each other. It was healthy competition. Everyone knew that if you got that shirt, you had to perform to keep that shirt, but you had the full support of your team, and everyone wanted everyone to do well. You could feel that through the trainings, the games...we sat [on the pitch] disappointed that we couldn’t beat Argentina, who later went on to win the World Cup.
“That said a lot about us as a group, the motivations in what we believed in and what we could do. To only just be pipped by arguably the greatest player in history, it’s something we can be proud of. We were disappointed to be out of the World Cup, but looking back, it was Messi’s year; it was meant to be for him. Had we played someone else, we probably could have gone further, but it was incredible to be part of it.
“Wearing that shirt, getting on the pitch and making my World Cup debut in front of my family was something special and something that will forever live with me and my family. My daughters are very young, and they have no idea what I do, but one day, I can show them a photo and say I actually played at a World Cup. They probably won’t believe it, but I’ve got bragging rights for the rest of my life. It was a special, special achievement.”
Wright experienced plenty of highs for Australia at the 2017 Confederations Cup, the 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifying campaigns, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He reflected on memorable travels in the green and gold, including trips to Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh in 2015 and away to Honduras in the first leg of the intercontinental playoff in 2017, played in one of the most dangerous cities on the planet.
“I remember Kyrgyzstan being the first game of our group (Group B of second-round qualifying for Russia 2018), and that was a tough game in tough conditions,” Wright said about travelling to Bishkek.
“It was in a stadium that had a lot more people than it should have had; those experiences like that, you see all those people there trying to watch this game against Australia, and it shows how much people care about these games. Even though I didn’t play, I remember it clearly.
“We also went to Bangladesh, where the security was ridiculously high; we were in and out just for the game. There were no issues, but it was a game where we were up 5-0 at half-time and felt like, 'Just get the job done and get out of the place' because there were security threats. The Australian cricket team cancelled their tours because of issues there, but we were still forced to play our game, and if we didn’t, we had to forfeit.
“I’ve got goosebumps just remembering about it now, and a lot of boys would share the same experience,” Wright added when describing the atmosphere and hostility in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
“When you play an away game, you arrive at the stadium and do a walk of the pitch to check it out and have a feeling. Visualise how the game is going to go; you take a lot in. I remember walking around the pitch together; the stadium was near-full, and the noise was deafening. This was about one hour until the warm-up started.
“Everyone [in Honduras] wanted to beat us. It was an all-or-nothing match, so you can understand where they are coming from. The conditions were tough; the atmosphere was loud and noisy, and you could hardly hear the referee’s whistle. The pitch was soft and sinking, and we came away with a 0-0 draw, which we were content with.
“Then later, captain Mile (Jedinak) does what Mile does, and in the second leg at home, he pretty much took his nation to a World Cup. To be part of that game was something special, and to do it in Australia reminded me of our golden generation’s penalty shootout win against Uruguay, who qualified to their first World Cup after so many years. To play in Sydney in a game of that magnitude to qualify for a World Cup was a true pinch-yourself moment for me.”
Bailey Wright has featured 19 times in all competitions for Lion City Sailors this season, scoring four goals. The Sailors are six points clear atop the Singapore Premier League table and second in their Asian Champions League Two group. The defender's next opportunity for a recall to the Socceroos setup will come when Tony Popovic announces his squad for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in November.
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