Shaun Wright-Phillips celebrates his birthday next week and, as he edges into his 30s, the ambitions he still hopes to fulfil become ever quirkier. An aspiration to assist Queens Park Rangers to a first top-flight home win since Mark Hateley led their line and Ray Wilkins patrolled midfield is understandable enough. As is the desire for that victory to come at the expense of his former club Chelsea in Sunday's derby. Unsurprising, too, is a craving to return to Fabio Capello's England squad in time for next summer's European Championship.
Yet there is another pressing target to be achieved by the end of the calendar year, one that has the winger pressed for time with an appointment booked across town. "I've never been able to touch my toes," he says. "Seriously, never. In a game I'm, like, 'Rubber Man' or something but, off the pitch, I'm the least flexible person you could imagine. It's down to short hamstrings apparently. Anyway, I've started yoga and have told the lady taking the classes she has to get me touching my toes by Christmas. That's my task." A second session of downward-facing dog and pyramid poses awaits with a more supple life ahead, all of which feels apt given Wright-Phillips is currently bouncing back.
A deadline-day return to London with QPR has served to rejuvenate after too long kicking his heels on the fringes at Manchester City. The England winger had previously gone a year without starting a Premier League game, a victim of aggressive squad building at Eastlands and the departure of Mark Hughes, the manager who had taken him back to City after three years in and out of the team at Chelsea.
Sunday's eagerly anticipated meeting with former employers will provide his sixth league start in succession, an involvement he has not enjoyed since the last few weeks of Hughes's tenure. Indeed, under Roberto Mancini, the winger made only two top-flight starts last term. To see him busily scuttling at full-backs these days, spitting shots at goal with glee, is to witness a player making up for lost time.
His team's aspirations may have changed, from targeting league titles to focusing on survival, but not since he was breaking on to the scene in his first spell at City has Wright-Phillips felt so integral. Neil Warnock, a manager relishing one last fling at the big time, recruited a quintet of top-flight performers in transfer deadline week, and each had his own reason to wish to make an impression. "He brought in hungry, experienced players, and we all had something to prove," said the England midfielder. "But my own hunger was purely about the enjoyment of playing. Being out of a team changes you as a person. You don't realise it but, away from the game, you can be snappy with your family or friends if you're not playing. It hurts not to be involved, but I guess you have to accept it. It's part and parcel of being at a big club."
Wright-Phillips could be deemed a high-profile victim of the modern day squad building phenomenon. The Premier League has attracted a handful of billionaire owners and the midfielder has worked under two of them, Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour. Yet, while he has admittedly earned handsomely each time, he only ever thrived in fits and starts when surrounded by the best talent money could buy. Stockpiling players of such calibre forces seasoned internationals to the margins. The Russian oligarch would visit the dressing room post-match, congratulating or commiserating his £21m signing – "He was always relaxed and would try to get to know you one-to-one so that you felt comfortable going to him if ever you needed something" – during a three-year spell that yielded all three major domestic honours, yet Wright-Phillips' impact still always felt rather peripheral. The one thing Abramovich could not provide him with was a guaranteed first-team place.
At City, where the midfielder made his name long before Arab money transformed expectations, his second coming was effectively eclipsed by the Abu Dhabi takeover. Suddenly, £8.5m purchases felt like small change, the type of fee forked out on a squad player to flesh out the numbers. There was to be no place in the match-day squad for the FA Cup final last May, just as there had not been with Avram Grant's Chelsea at the European Cup final in Moscow in 2008. Even so, the winger reflects on both spells among the nouveaux riches with pride. "I remind myself that I got there in the first place, to Chelsea and City," he says. "For someone who was playing Sunday League football on a concrete surface in south London not that long ago, to find myself in a position where I was fighting for a first-team place at clubs that big represented a huge leap. I'll never forget that, even if it was frustrating at times.
"With City, it's different. That's the club where it began for me, one that I've been close to since I was 17, so to see the transformation the place has gone through to have them sitting on top of the table just makes me happy: for the fans, for the players who were there just before the takeover, and for those who are now enjoying it. To see them achieving everything City's supporters had ever wanted is wonderful. I don't have any remorse or regret over the situation I found myself in there. It's not about me. It's about the club moving in the right direction. Over the 10 years I spent there, that's all they ever wanted: to be challenging. Now they are. To have been partly involved in making that possible makes me proud.
"And looking back at Chelsea, I feel the same. It was always going to be hard breaking into that team, and I knew it would be like that. But I played a part, I helped win trophies, and the whole thing was a brilliant experience. Why would there be any regrets? I worked under José Mourinho, a manager who taught me new things and stressed I should believe in myself. It could be difficult out of the side, but when someone like him tells you: 'I signed you, so I've got confidence in you,' the feeling you get is unbelievable. He made everyone feel involved and part of things, even if you were out of the first team. That is a huge talent. When I look back, I played 27 games in each of my three seasons at the club, a good amount in a team that was winning and pretty much dominating at the time. And, all the time, I was learning."
He will confront friends turned foes at Loftus Road. His immediate task is to unsettle Ashley Cole – "Different class, a full-back who plays like a wing-back and is a nightmare to be up against" – but he must also summon something unpredictable to surprise his rivals' manager. André Villas-Boas was on the scouting staff under Mourinho and made a lasting impression on Wright-Phillips. "You recognise when an opposition scout's good at what he does. With him, the information he gave you was always accurate. He'd provide in-depth analysis of every player on the opposing side: how they play; where they were strong; how you could get at them; inside leg measurement … you name it, he knew it. He studied the game in minute detail, so it's no surprise to see what he's achieved since. I guess he's got people doing all that for him now, and they'll have their reports on me. I'll just have to try and do the opposite to what they might expect."
In a sense, Wright-Phillips has done that even by venturing to Rangers. There had been a flurry of interest from more established Premier League clubs on the eve of the transfer deadline. Bolton were long-standing admirers. David Moyes telephoned as the cut-off ticked closer to persuade him to move to Everton. Yet, even when he arrived at breakfast at the team hotel before the match at Wolves to find his team-mates had replaced his seat with a highchair, there has been no regretting the choice he made. "QPR just felt like the right fit," he adds. "Sure, it was nice to feel wanted. Attackers thrive on confidence, and all the interest was a reminder that people hadn't forgotten me, but this was a chance to make a mark again. For now it's all about staying in this division before looking to push on. We've only offered flashes of what we can achieve so far, and maybe our form hasn't been there consistently. But it's coming. We're improving.
"The set-up is solid. We've got an owner [Tony Fernandes] who is ambitious, someone who likes to interact with everyone who's supportive of what he's trying to do, meeting the fans in the pub, chatting on Twitter, talking to the players. We're all on the same wavelength. We've got a manager [Warnock] who is loving being in this division. He's a different generation to a Mourinho or a Mancini, but his methods aren't any less effective. He does things his way and he knows how to win games. He had faith in me, and I want to repay that. I've still got lots I want to achieve, and lots to give QPR. The Chelsea game is the biggest derby we'll have this season. I guess that means it'll be the perfect place to start."