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ULTIMATE XI: Leicester City’s best-ever team

Who makes the ultimate Leicester City XI? Andy Mitten picks out the best Foxes side of all-time.

Leicester City are ascendant and go into Saturday’s game against Manchester United as Premier League leaders. United are second, but while Jamie Vardy is making the headlines, what of other great City players past and present?

Unlike in the Billy Bragg song, I didn’t have an uncle who once played for Red Star Belgrade, but I did have one who played for Manchester United. And another who played for Leicester City.

Despite being an England international at schoolboy and youth level, John Mitten won’t come close to making the Foxes’ greatest XI, but he was an accomplished all-round sportsman who boxed at a national level and also played first class cricket for Leicestershire.

He was one of several people I spoke to as part of this article to select a Leicester team.

Gordon Banks (1959-1967)

With Peter Shilton and Gordon Banks to choose from, Leicester have two of England’s best-ever goalkeepers.

“A great goalkeeper,” reckons Paddy Crerand, who played against Banks many times. “But after studying him, I saw that he always threw the ball to Davie Gibson.” At Wembley in the 1963 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Leicester City, Crerand, who was man of the match, made his move.

“Knowing he’d throw the ball to David, I rushed to nick it off him,” explained Crerand. “I passed to Denis Law who smashed it in. 1-0. We never looked back.”

“Gordon’s the best British keeper ever,” adds John Mitten. “Only Bert Trautman was better than him in England. We were close friends and would play golf and badminton every week. Gordon gave confidence to the team. Where other goalkeepers would punch it, Gordon would catch. Such a nice man, too.”

Steve Walsh (1986-2000)

“A Lancashire lad and a Leicester legend,” says former Leicester striker James Scowcroft. “He was at Leicester for 14 years and scored two goals in the play-off final against Derby which took Leicester into the Premier League. He’d been injured almost all that season too.

“He’d just left before I arrived, but the stories of him were legendary. A proper hard man who once eyeballed Ian Wright and offered to sort their differences off the field.”

Walsh once scored a 96th minute equaliser in a 3-3 win against Arsenal. They’d been 2-0 down.

“He could play up front or in defence,” adds Scowcroft. “He’d be injured midweek and Martin O’Neill would ask him about his condition the day before the game. Steve would ask for 20 minutes at the start of the game to see how he was. Then he’d play for 90.”

The man Leicester fans called ‘Captain Fantastic’, Walsh holds the joint record for the most red cards received in the Football League.

“Steve Walsh epitomised everything about the Brian Little and Martin O'Neill eras at Leicester,” said Geoff Peters, a Leicester supporting presenter for TalkSport. “Despite the red mist descending a bit too often and injuries halting his progress, he was such a warrior. He would be the one player I’d take into battle with me,”

Matt Elliott (1997-2005)

“Another O’Neill stalwart and Leicester legend,” remembers Scowcroft of his former captain who moved to Filbert Street from Oxford United. He’s still Oxford’s record transfer sale.

“Matt was very fair as a captain, with time for everyone,” adds Scowcroft. “He was very good socially and helped with the team spirit, though there were some raised eyebrows when he couldn’t come into training one day because he said he’d had a problem with his electric gates at home, especially as we knew he’d been out for a few drinks the night before.”

Elliott scored both goals in the team which won the 2000 League Cup final, and, though born in London, played 18 times for Scotland.

Richie Norman (1959-68)

“I’d not spoken to Richie for 51 years,” recalls Mitten. “We were good friends at Leicester and he recently tracked me down. It was lovely to hear from him. He was very underrated but always the first player on the team sheet.”

The north-easterner, who joined from Horden Colliery Welfare, played over 300 games at left-back for the Foxes.

Mitten added: “Not many gave him a roasting and he was very dependable – never a 10/10, never a 5/10 – but always 7 or 8. He was a step short of being international class, but he played every week for Leicester when they had their strongest ever team.”

If we’re talking Leicester full-backs, we can’t ignore David Nish (1966-72). He was the most expensive player ever in Britain when he left Leicester for Derby County in 1972, breaking the fee for Alan Ball. Nish was a classy performer who was equally effective at the Baseball Ground.

Frank McLintock (1956-64)

“A neighbour of mine from the Glasgow Gorbals,” remembers Crerand. “So that made him alright by me. He played number four and so did I in the 1963 FA Cup final. We went out together after the match. We’d beaten them but they’d beaten us in the league 4-3 a month before the final and were actually on for the double at one point.

“Frank was a talker and a leader,” adds Crerand. “He could kick a player if needed but couldn’t we all? He became a great player at Arsenal.”

The Gunners bought him for a club record £80,000 in 1964 and he spent the next 13 years in London, nine at Highbury and four at Loftus Road. Later managed Leicester in 1977, but it was an inglorious ten months in charge.

David Gibson (1962-1970)

The inside left who was the creative force in Leicester’s fine 60s side, “Davie” Gibson scored in both legs of Leicester’s 1964 League Cup triumph and played in a further three finals for the club.

“Great left foot, very stylish player,” recalls Crerand. “We played for Scotland together a few times and he was a lovely lad, though I’d joke that he was posh because he came from Edinburgh.”

Muzzy Izzet (1996-2004)

“Technically, a very, very good footballer,” recalls former team-mate Scowcroft. “Don’t forget he reached the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup with Turkey.

“He was a Londoner from the East End who’d played at Chelsea as a kid. They should never have let him go. Him, Robbie Savage and Neil Lennon played in the midfield for Martin O’Neill’s side.

“Savage was the water carrier, Lennon would sit and pass while Muzzy would move forward and find space. He was very popular at Leicester, among the players, the fans and everyone at the club.”

“Muzzy Izzet has been the most skillful player in my three decades or so of watching them,” adds Geoff Peters. “He was a real game changer and humble and modest to boot. He once scored a stunning volley to win the match against Tottenham on a highly charged night in October 1998 at Filbert Street when rumours were rife that Martin O'Neill could be off to Leeds and fans were waving ‘Don’t Go Martin’ banners.”

That changed the mood. Izzet often did.

Jamie Vardy (2012-present)

“He’s down to earth, the type of lad you’d kick a ball about with at the JJB,” said Richard Wellens, who played 129 times for Leicester in four years until 2013, including in two Championship play-offs.

“He was raw when he arrived from Fleetwood, but there was a bit of a buzz about him because he was the most expensive player to ever come from non-league to a league club.

“Jamie’s talent was clear and his work rate was never questioned – he reminded me of Paul Dickov – but he got caught offside too much when he came to us.

“He couldn’t finish in matches like he did in training, but that’s all changed. His pace is incredible, he scares teams. He’s also a great lad whose confidence has shot up and I’m delighted for him.”

Mike Stringfellow (1962-1975)

“The man who took my place,” laughs Mitten. “He’d actually been spotted by my father (former Manchester United winger Charlie) who held open trials when he was the Mansfield Town manager.

“Mike was only 16 when dad signed him and Mansfield made a lot of money when they sold him (for £25,000 when he was 18). Dad liked him as a naturally left-footed winger because you didn’t get many. He was strong, tall and a bit gangly. He was very quiet, but he did very well at Leicester.”

Frank Worthington (1972-77)

A man now enshrouded in a romantic mist, Halifax-born Worthington was a silky skilled 1970s maverick.

With his Elvis style hair, he was a showman who loved playing. He played for a lot of northern clubs, but was at his best as the star attraction in Jimmy Bloomfield’s Leicester side of the early 1970s.

Too much of an individualist to fit Don Revie’s England side, his lived like a George Best style international playboy off the pitch – his autobiography is called One Hump Or Two. Worthington’s on-field antics inspired a young Gary Lineker.

Manager: Matt Gillies or Martin O’Neill

Leicester manager Frank O’Farrell was good enough to get offered the Manchester United in the early 70s and Martin O’Neill did a superb job at Filbert Street, the dilapidated ground with one smart stand.

O’Neill would welcome prospective signing by leading them out onto the pitch with their back to it, so they saw the new main stand first and not the two tiny stands.

Matt Gillies was the man in charge for a decade and won the club’s first-ever trophy. He’d been a Leicester player when they won promotion in 1954 and, as manager, won the 1964 League Cup and reached the 1961 and 1963 FA Cup finals, plus the 1965 League Cup final.

His 1962-63 team were known as the Ice Kings and went for the double before wining only one of their last nine games to finish fourth.

A Scot, Gillies was a tactician and an old school one at that.

“You never saw him in a tracksuit,” recalls Mitten. “He was a suit man and you needed to make an appointment to speak to him. The only time I saw him was when I was in bother!”

Gillies’ Ice Kings are regarded as Leicester’s greatest line-up ever after finishing fourth. If the current side continue their form, that opinion may have to be revised.

Footnote: Yes, we know there are many more: Emile Heskey, Gary McAllister, Keith Weller, Peter Rodrigues and Lineker et al. Let’s save them for another feature if Leicester win the league this season…