As Wright closes the door to the house in Merritt Road for the last time, he says: “There’s no love here, that’s for sure.” Oh, but there was once. Little Maurice would place his hands over Ian’s ears to stop him hearing his stepdad punch and strangle his mother. We meet as racism in football is, once more, dominating the headlines, after a fan was accused of making monkey noises at the Manchester United player Fred during the recent Manchester derby. Wright is clear that racism at football matches needs to be dealt with more vigorously. “Everybody talks about education and we do need to educate young people, but when you look at the people who are racially abusing players now, they’re older people, so education is wasted on those people. Those people need to be punished severely so it can be a deterrent, so people will see that when you racially abuse someone in this ground you are out for life.” If the domestic situation in the book mirrors Wright’s own, a lot of the detail of Jerome’s footballing life is closer to the stories of modern players. Okwonga has previously written a book about the England star Raheem Sterling, and both he and Wright admire the way that the England manager, Gareth Southgate, has encouraged his players to talk so openly about their “origin stories” in recent years, tales of struggle and tragedy (Sterling’s father was murdered in Jamaica when he was two years old) that help to give emotional context to their lucrative success. Not a standard footballer's autobiography, Ian Wright's memoir is a thoughtful and gripping insight into a Highbury Hero and one of the most popular sports stars of recent years.

Wright has never been someone to shy away from his flaws. He sought professional help for his anger issues after an infamous incident in 1999 when he smashed up a referee’s dressing room after being sent off. In truth, though, Wright had been battling to control his anger long before he stepped on to a football pitch. Wrighty's characteristic honesty means his book is far more engrossing than most bland football memoirs' Sunday Times It’s really strange [that absence],” Wright says. “Because even though he was never around, and I never knew him, I used to think about him all the time. And because my stepdad was how he was, I’d think about him even more. Not really comparing them. More: ‘Why isn’t he here to protect me? Why doesn’t he like me?’”

Last year, the Match of the Day pundit opened up about his troubled childhood and “cruel” stepfather, describing football as his “only escape”. Ian will also frankly discuss how retirement affects footballers, why George Graham deserves a statue, social media, why music matters, breaking Arsenal's goal-scoring record, racism, the unadulterated joy of playing alongside Dennis Bergkamp and, of course, what he thinks of Tottenham. Which nations have North Korean embassies? Which region has the highest number of death metal bands per capita? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the 'wrong' side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild?

Ian Wright is an Arsenal legend; I became aware of him mostly through his recent work with Arsenal as an ambassador. He is a great link between the club and the fans. It is a shame Wright’s mum was too frail to take part in this programme. I wonder if she will watch it, and how she will feel about her son saying how much he adores her and yet how much he hated her. I wonder, too, what his estranged stepdad will make of this. Most of all, I wonder if Wright, who tells us he forgave his mum, could ever forgive his stepdad. That would be the hardest work of all. I’ve always tried to say: this is the way I think you might go,” he says, “without telling them: go this way. I don’t want them to make mistakes I made. When we wrote the bits where I’m speaking to Jerome in the book, I was thinking: ‘Jesus Christ, if I could have just had that person there… ’” As time went by we spoke,” he says, slowly wringing his hands: “She said she had her own problems as well. Whatever her problems were I always wanted to find out, but she was never forthcoming. She didn’t want to speak about those things. I’m not going to put a spotlight on her. I learned to deal with it myself because at the end of the day, you can only heal yourself.” In his 2016 book, A Life in Football: My Autobiography, Wright says of these years that he came to hate himself. Yet, he says, he cannot regret these experiences “because it shapes you” and he understands why he behaved the way he did. “When you grew up in a situation where the love wasn’t forthcoming, then all of a sudden, you get into a situation where you are successful and everybody loves you, you can get a little bit high on that.”The point for Wright in dragging up this past is to highlight how damaging it is for children to witness domestic abuse. In the 70s, one former social worker tells Wright, children who witnessed their mothers being beaten by their fathers were not thought to be traumatised as a result. Only earlier this year, thanks to the Domestic Abuse Act, was the law changed so children can be regarded as victims of domestic abuse. That reform is necessary, not sufficient. “One million kids are living with domestic abuse,” the social worker says. “That has to change.” Off the pitch for some of his years at Arsenal, things were less harmonious; his swift fame and commercial success (including the lucrative sponsorship from Nike) took its toll. “I got caught up with people who didn’t have my best interests at heart,” says Wright. “I got caught up with women who were using me. I got caught up with believing the hype, just because I was playing great football. You kind of get into this hedonistic mindset where you think everything’s just amazing, you could do anything you want, like you’re breathing different air.” They absolutely believe they can. Wright wasn’t a great reader in his teens but he likes the promise of calmness and private worlds that reading a book implies. “I think Marcus can inspire that,” he says. “You can come to a book in your own time. There’s something kind of permanent about it, I think.” Wright loves the role that he has been given in Okwonga’s storytelling. “The great thing about the book,” he says, “is it’s kind of me talking to my younger self. And Jerome doesn’t always respond to my character, despite all the help I’m trying to give. I like that. Because part of being a mentor is not pressuring people but giving them some space. That’s the kind of advice I would have wanted.”

Okwonga, born in London to Uganda parents and now based in Germany, went to Eton aged 13 on a scholarship and then trained as a lawyer at Oxford University before becoming a full-time writer and journalist.

This article was amended on 12 September 2021. Palace lost the 1990 FA cup final in a replay, not in extra time of the first game as an earlier version indicated. Over the years, watching Wright as a pundit on TV, he’s often seemed to me to have a kind of introspection that his fellow ex-players don’t quite share. He plays up to the caricature of the great enthusiast but occasionally he seems to drift off into a little private reverie. At those moments you have that sense that while for most players football was what they did, for him it was always more something that he was, heart and soul. You wonder how much that is tied up with how close he came to not making it. 'When you are through on goal, Ian,' Mr Pigden had said, 'slow down, pass the ball into the net, score beautiful goals' His upbringing has undoubtedly affect Ian throughout his life and his mother and step-father should be ashamed of how he was brought up. It is incredible to think he still made sure his mother never had a worry in the world after he became and pro and shows how kind Ian Wright has become despite all odds. From Sunday morning football directly to Crystal Palace; from 'boring, boring Arsenal' to inside the Wenger Revolution; from Saturday afternoons on the pitch to Saturday evenings on primetime television; from a week in prison to inspiring youth offenders Ian Wright has a lot to talk about.