Ian Wright kicked referee’s door and smashed room to bits after being sent off

Many football fans will know Ian Wright as one of English football's nice guys – but even the nice guys can have a dark side.

And Wright's was on full display in May 1999 when the then-West Ham striker let loose on a referee's room when he was dismissed during a 5-1 defeat at home to Leeds. Referee Rob Harris was criticised for sending three Hammers off at Upton Park, but no-one else had a reaction to the controversy quite as bad as former Arsenal star Wright.

"I got sent off against Leeds for West Ham [in] one of the last games of the season," the Premier League and FA Cup-winner told Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jill Scott on The Overlap. "It was [then-Leeds full-back] Ian Harte – I didn't catch him with the challenge, and I know I didn't catch him, but he went over and he was rolling."

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Wright went over his immediate emotions at seeing the red before attempting to explain the anger that followed: "I felt so wronged that I lost all my composure. And I started effing and blinding with him, then I done the thing you just don't do – when you see people doing it, you say, 'Someone get him off' – chasing the ref."

And although his West Ham team-mates prevented him from doing any extra damage to Harris on the field, the worst was yet to come. It wasn't until Wright was back behind the scenes at Upton Park that he really let his emotions get the better of him.

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"So because I couldn't get to him, I'm walking off, and you'd think that was it," continued the ex-Hammers forward. "And then I kicked the referee's door in and smashed his room to bits. That was the emotion."

It ended up being one of his final actions for West Ham as Wright was loaned out to Nottingham Forest a few months later before eventually joining Celtic. But his days in the Premier League were done, and they certainly didn't end in the classy manner he might have hoped.

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Wright's colleague and friend, Keane, can be seen comforting the Englishman with a few pats on the shoulder, knowing all too well the feeling of the red mist descending. While the incident against Leeds was one of two Premier League red cards Wright received, Keane was dismissed seven times in the competition and holds the joint-English football record for 12 reds overall.

Still, even the Manchester United icon perhaps didn't blow up at an official (or rather, their quarters) quite like Wright did that day in east London. Worst of all, the 33-cap former England international will have had to pay up for repairs on his way out of the West Ham exit.

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