Ian Wright has revealed how a chilling encounter with a Rangers supporter convinced him to lock himself away during Old Firm week.
The Arsenal icon had a brief spell at Celtic in the twilight of his glittering career, joining the Parkhead club in October 1999 and scoring three goals in eight appearances before departing in February 2000.
Though his stint was short-lived, Wright featured in two powderkeg clashes against Rangers — starting in a 4-2 defeat at Ibrox before coming off the bench in a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park.
But speaking on The Overlap, Wright admitted the intensity of the Glasgow football divide took him by surprise, forcing him to stay indoors for his own safety during derby week.
"When I was at Celtic, I had to have minders for the Rangers games — it was quite intimidating," Wright said. "It made me think, ‘Really? What do I need minders for?’
"I remember one time I was coming out and someone slammed onto the bonnet of the car shouting 'NO SURRENDER!' So I didn’t come out of the hotel after that. I just thought, ‘What’s the point?’ You don’t know who you’re going to bump into."
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Wright was joined on the podcast by former Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson, who also lifted the lid on the extreme pressures of life in Glasgow’s goldfish bowl.
Ferguson, who made a then-British record £4million switch from Dundee United to Ibrox in 1993, admitted minders were part of his daily routine as he battled scrutiny on and off the pitch.
He said: "Minders needed to always be with me whilst I was at Rangers. It was tough — even if you had to go to the supermarket for aftershave or a Valentine’s card, I had to take a couple of minders with me.
"It’d never happened before, and it’s never happened again, but I got put in prison for that incident on the football pitch, then they changed the rules as it was wrong what they did to me."
The Old Firm rivalry remains one of the fiercest fixtures in world football — and for Wright and Ferguson, the memories of life under the microscope in Glasgow remain every bit as intense as the 90 minutes on the pitch.
