Edinburgh Monarchs look ahead to life after Wright

Wright was shown the Armadale door earlier this week and has been replaced by young German prospect Marcel Helfer, who makes his debut against Glasgow Tigers tomorrow night.

Campbell insisted Wright’s departure after less than four months at the tail-end is for the benefit of the whole team, claiming: “Charles had average meetings and poor meetings and we couldn’t turn him into a better rider.”

Despite defending Wright just 24 hours before their Knockout Cup win against the Tigers at Ashfield on Sunday, Campbell said: “When Charles has a poor meeting his negativity is unbelievable and he just got on top of us. We had enough points to play with to bring Marcel over who will become our own asset in due course and in years to come will be a very successful member of our team.”

Helfer has been on Campbell’s radar since last winter but the 21-year-old was unable to travel to Scotland until he had completed his college education, but Campbell denied that Wright had simply been hired in a holding role in anticipation of Helfer’s arrival.

“That would be unfair to say that,” said Campbell. “We said from day one with Charles that he lacked confidence in his own ability and we would sort that out, we have failed to do that, we couldn’t overcome what he’s got between his ears. Charles is going to continue to drift along as he has done for a number of years. He has not been able to show his true ability because he is put off by the slightest little thing.”

It’s fair to say Wright joined Monarchs with some baggage and his exit from other clubs did not appear to bode well for a prolonged tenure with the Capital side and Campbell said: “Before we signed him it had surprised me that he had apparently done well with other teams only to be dumped out for no reason. And when you work with him you understand why that would be the case.

“You try to encourage him and he’ll come out with a million reasons as to why he didn’t win this race or that race. Even at Glasgow on Sunday when he won his last outing in heat 14, his first two races were very average, and the reason for that performance is that it wears you down.

“It has proved impossible for us to turn his head around to make him a better rider. I’m happy that Marcel will score a lot more points than Charles, he has the ability to do well on big tracks and I’m sure after a week or two he’ll be rattling up points at some of the Premier League circuits and he’ll also score at Armadale as well. He is more positive than Charles and that will benefit everybody in the team.”

Wright confessed he was feeling really good after his race win at Glasgow, admitting: “It felt like the start of the year again, but it’s because of the team points limit, I think, that I have been dropped, because it’s not me who has dropped points from my average.

“I thought when John (Campbell) phoned that he was going to say well done for winning that race at Glasgow, but as soon as he said he had some bad news I knew straight away what he was going to say.

“At least he rang me, when I got dropped by Leicester Lions I got a text.”

Wright added: “The Edinburgh management gave me a good run, but it’s frustrating to leave them because I had just got to know everybody in the side.”