Andy King - Interview in The Times

[StanSP]

Quote

 

Andy King is that rarity in the modern game, a one-club man, so in love with Leicester City after 379 games and 64 goals that he willingly and selflessly handed over the prized No 10 shirt to James Maddison because, for him, it is about the badge on the front not the name on the back.

He’s 30, lean and fit after preparing for pre-season with private training sessions in Portugal, and determined to convince Brendan Rodgers that he can still contribute to a Leicester side full of emerging talent and with ambitions of breaking back into the top six. He’s realistic, too, appreciating the quality of youngsters at Leicester, like Maddison.

 

With the No 10 shirt, King also sent Maddison a message: “It suits you mate, I hope it brings you as much pride, success and happiness as it did for me”. King now wears No 37. Sitting in a hotel on the edge of Leicester, King shrugs about the numbers game. “The shirt is about the name on the front, not the back. If it’s blue and it’s got a Leicester badge on then I will wear it regardless of what number is on the back.”

If he stays, Leicester know they have a player with the club’s best interests at heart, who can mentor young players and deliver occasional goals from midfield. If King leaves, his new employers know they are bringing in a fabulous role model and professional. King has always had strong values, instilled by his parents growing up in Maidenhead. “Hard work, always being a good person, trying to help others,” lists the Wales international.

King’s unique in the game, having won League One, the Championship and, most famously, the Premier League in 2016 with Leicester. “But it is getting harder to be a one-club man, especially in the Premier League with the amount of signings clubs make and the instability around managers,” King continues. “I look at Mark Noble. To be at a club of West Ham’s stature his whole career, and see him still contributing so much and doing so well (at 32), I’ve got a lot of respect for him.

“When you have a feeling for a club as I do with Leicester, you want to stay. We’re a family. It starts off as team-mates, then friends and now they’re like family. Wes (Morgan), Vards (Jamie Vardy), Matty James, Kasper (Schmeichel). Friends for life. If you saw my wedding in the summer it was a ‘who’s who’ of Leicester over the past 10-15 years!

“Leicester were the ones who took a chance on me when I got released by Chelsea at 15. It was the start of the era when Chelsea were buying kids from abroad. The game after we won the league, we played Chelsea away and I walked out at Stamford Bridge as a Premier League champion to a guard of honour, thinking 11 years ago they released me saying ‘you need to forge your own path somewhere else’.”

He has done, demonstrating a determination that has made his name a byword for professionalism in the game and a fan favourite at Leicester. King was a beacon of hope in their dark days, fighting to get out of League One, then out of the Championship and the “heartache” of two play-off defeats, sharing the supporters’ pain. “They know I cried when the club cried,” he says.

They have shared so many special moments too. “I still can’t believe it now,” King says of that 2016 title triumph under Claudio Ranieri. “It will seem an even more unbelievable story the more time goes on.”

He still resents suggestions that Leicester’s powerful dressing room forced Ranieri out later in February 2017. “Some stuff written was massively unfair and definitely untrue about the changing room. The lads had nothing but the utmost respect for the manager. They’d never dream of doing anything like some things were written, but it is a strong dressing room.

“I spoke with Frank Lampard last year when I went to Derby (on loan), and he said they had the same thing thrown at them at Chelsea. But to be a successful team you need to have a strong changing room: if people are stepping out of line, not being punctual, not giving 100 per cent, you need players in there to point it out.”

He underlines the point about how senior Leicester players pass on the dressing-room values. “We actually had a meeting about it when we were away in Evian this pre-season. It was about the togetherness we’ve always shown, sticking together, and now it is about ensuring the great young players at Leicester City now, British and some foreign, also buy into that and take that on.”

After Ranieri left, Craig Shakespeare took over and then Claude Puel arrived, immediately sidelining King. “If Claude could have had everyone from the title-winning team out, he would have done,” King says. “He wanted everything associated with that era gone.

“With myself, someone who has been there so so long, knows everyone in the training ground, knows why the cub have been successful, maybe he thought that was going to hamper the new regime he wanted to bring in. But I would have knuckled down and worked hard for him as I have for every manager. Then he takes ‘Vards’ out the team, so maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself because if he’s taking Leicester’s talisman, who’s scored so many goals, out of the team, then that made me think he would have had everyone from the 2016 team out.

I thought as a coach some of the stuff he tried to say was right. The way he went about it wasn’t great. I didn’t have a conversation with him the whole time he was here. He wasn’t really chatty with anyone. I was getting frozen out. I was thinking, ‘How is this guy who’s been here two weeks, telling me who’s been here 10 years that I’m the one who has to leave?’ That was hard to take.

“I’d go into Leicester in the afternoon, and feel embarrassed with people coming up, going, ‘What’s happened? Do you not play for Leicester anymore?’ So I went to Swansea (in January 2018). It felt really strange going into another training ground, putting on another shirt.

“But I really enjoyed it at Swansea. Back in Wales, which was something I wanted to do. A good style of football, the manager Carlos Carvalhal was really good, bubbly. But it did feel weird.”

On King’s return last summer, Puel again blanked him. Leicester’s highly-respected director of football, Jon Rudkin, spoke to King. “Jon took it upon himself to try to keep me in the loop, which was really good of him, and I am grateful for that.” Puel did not bother to inform King that he would not be in the 25-man Premier League squad. “That killed me.”

He will never forget Puel’s poor handling of the situation. “I’ve started my badges with the FAW and if I go on and be a manager, I’ll always make sure I speak to the player because of the experience I had with him (Puel). I would have nothing to say to him if I saw him now. I wouldn’t ask him how he is. We didn’t have a relationship when he was at the club so why should we have one now? But he did teach me a valuable lesson in terms of how you treat people.”

Out in the cold, King was not at the stadium on October 27, the worst day in the club’s history when Leicester’s much-loved owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, died in the helicopter crash at the King Power. “It was horrendous, the worst feeling I’ve ever had. I wasn’t at the game. It was my birthday weekend, Kasper called me and said, ‘It doesn’t look good.’ I was out with my family and I said, ‘We’re going to have to go.

“I just felt emptiness. It was unbearable. For it to happen to him, such a good guy, what he’d done for all of us, that whole Premier League-winning season, even the Championship-winning season, he’d put that all in place, he’d signed the players, appointed the managers, created the spirit. He masterminded it. The effect Vichai had on our lives as players…everything we have is because of him.

“It was the way he treated people. Team spirit comes from socialising together which at Leicester we’re really good at and Vichai was almost the driving force behind that: he’d take the team out for meals, the staff out, he’d want to show the lads off in Thailand, and the lads like feeling ‘we’re with him, and he’s a powerful figure’. He knew about everyone’s family. He moved the Dubai training camp back because I was having my engagement party.

“It was the first time since Claude had been in charge where I felt, ‘Right, I’ve got a role to play here’. It really doesn’t matter whether I’m playing or being frozen out, I knew the lads were going to need an arm around them.” Leicester rallied, showing their strength, the substance that Vichai embodied and encouraged. “He would have been proud of what he saw. Top (Vichai’s son), Susan Whelan (chief executive) and Jon were unbelievable, the strength of character they showed.

“I was thinking, ‘Would Top want to come to the stadium ever again, where his dad’s just had a helicopter crash?’ He was there the next day, to meet the players, put flowers down, He addressed everyone. The courage he showed. Top is going to be so determined that he carries on that legacy for his father. They were so close.

“The lads are going to be so out to win a cup for Vichai, and for Top. He’ll want to do it so much for his dad to show, ‘look this is for you, my tribute, you should be proud of me’. The lads are really close with Top and will really feel that and want that for him. It’s very powerful. It runs the whole way through the club. Everyone in the city has been behind the club, the whole footballing world has shown unbelievable support.”

Because Vichai made people dream. “Vichai always said, ‘by us winning the league made everyone think that if you put your mind to something you can achieve anything’. There were so many messages from so many people, from a five-year-old who’s been supporting Leicester for two years or an 85-year-old who’s supported Leicester his entire life. Vichai had such an effect. They’ll always remember him.”

King always will. Eventually, still mourning, he had to focus back on his career. Last January, with Puel still in charge, King had a chance to go to Nottingham Forest, Leicester’s rivals. “Forest are a great club, history, tradition, really good stadium, great fans, but I don’t think you can wear Leicester for so long, make all those memories, and then go and play for Forest. It was hard enough going to Derby (that January) because there’s a little rivalry there. Forest was always going to be a no, no.”

During his time away, Puel was dismissed, Rodgers installed and King has given everything in pre-season, even on holiday. “I went away with Matty James, his brother, and Jonny Evans came later in the week and we did some training in Portugal with one of the coaches from Leicester.

“The gaffer was in my hotel on holiday, came over for a chat, his wife came over and he brought his kid over - the kid just wanted to play in the kidzone and he got him over to say ‘hi’. The waitress came round, with a half of beer, and said, ‘Is this yours?’ I was chatting to the gaffer! I was going, ‘No it’s not mine!’ The gaffer said, ‘Go on, you can drink it!’ ‘No! It’s really not mine!’ He then sent a bottle of champagne over. He asked me back in pre-season whether I’d drunk it! No! I’d stuck it in my case to bring home.

“I’m enjoying working for him. He’s going to be really successful with the team. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with in man-management, attention to detail, the way he sets up the sessions, how he wants his teams to play. It’s like with Frank at Derby, the gaffer is really good at that connection with players. He holds the room really well when he speaks, never really raises his voice but you can tell if he’s not happy with something.

“With the old manager I had no chance. With this manager, I’m going to give it everything because it will always be about wanting to play here. If he turns around and says, ‘you’re over 30, the club’s going in a new direction,’ then I will look at the options.

“Leicester are growing, an attractive proposition for any player in the world to come here. Leicester have the financial backing to buy who they want and push for European places. None of those players are going to want to play for the club as much as I am.”

He’s excited by the talent emerging. “I’ve known Hamza (Choudhury) and Barnesy (Harvey Barnes) since they were really young, and they’ve always been good. You see many who are good but fall by the wayside because their attitude is bad but those two have always listened and learned.”

And what of the man with the No 10 shirt? “Madders does listen. He’s a really good guy. He’s got a bit of swagger, so much natural ability, the stuff he can do with the ball is unbelievable. Madders is a beautiful footballer. The other two work at their game more than Madders because their game is a bit more about graft. With Barnesy it’s direct pace. With Hamza it’s pressing and tackling. Those young lads are going to have great careers as long as they keep doing what they’re doing at the moment.”

One of the main reasons for Leicester’s camaraderie is the ebullient club ambassador and legend Alan Birchenall. “You see him down the training ground, bubbly, chirpy. Great guy.

He keeps saying to me, ‘I’m still here, so it’s not your job yet!’ I saw the amount of work he has to do, bless him, he’s here, there and everywhere around town, I’m not sure I’m cut out for it! I am happy for him to keep that role for a few more years yet!”

Capped 50 times for Wales, King knows he needs regular football to help Ryan Giggs’ side pursue qualification for Euro 2020. He’s a huge admirer of Giggs. “He’s been so recently a player, worked under the greatest manager ever (Sir Alex Ferguson) and he’s taken the experiences from there into his own managerial career.”

As at Leicester, he can see the talent thrusting through. “Wales are going for the young, athletic style of player. Some of the attacking players we’ve got now, for the two wide positions and the No 10: Dan James, (David) Brooks, Harry Wilson, Tom Lawrence.

“I was with DJ (James) at Swansea and I remember one training session he chased back and caught Nathan Dyer (who’s quick) and I said, ‘Who’s that?!’ He’d been on loan at Shrewsbury and was just back, training with the lads, lovely kid, and he is rapid. I’m not really surprised someone like Manchester United have taken him on. If they get him on that big pitch, and isolate him against someone one-v-one, he’s showing anyone a new set of heels.”

And there’s always Gareth Bale. King shakes his head in disbelief at Bale’s impasse at Real Madrid. “If he’s in that situation God help everyone else who’s trying to be a professional footballer. Because if he isn’t good enough, then we’re all wasting our time.

“He’s won four Champions Leagues and he’s being phased out. If you pick the best attributes out of each player in this (Wales) squad, mould it into one, that’s basically him: speed, athleticism, professionalism, awareness, technique, lovely guy, loves coming away with the lads, friendly to everyone. With Wales, we have a pretty diverse squad, some in League One, some in the Champions League and he’s Real Madrid and he doesn’t see himself as above anyone else.’

Bale and King were vital in driving Wales to the semi-finals of the Euro 2016. “Chris Coleman’s man-management was brilliant, probably the best I’ve had, he created an atmosphere where you were devastated if you missed a trip. People would come down injured, and say, ‘Can I get treatment.’ The lads were so tight. The memories I have from that year, scoring when we won the Premier League (against Everton, the day the trophy was presented) and playing in the Euro semi-final, and memories of both sets of lads, will stay with me forever.”

 

 

______________

 

Been said numerous times before but he really is a legend of the club. Fallen out of favour in last few years but can't question his loyalty, professionalism and respect for the club despite playing less. A consummate professional. 

 

 

Edited 31 July 2019 by StanSP

[Wakeyfox]

Absolutely amazing guy. Maybe not going to be in or around the team but you can see how much he loves it here. Hope he comes back as a coach in the future. 

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

Wow! He really goes after Puel, but doesn't really have much to say about Ranieri's sacking.

[Steve_Walsh5]

Well Puel sounds like a cvnt. 

[Beechey]

So much for Puel's much vaunted man-management skills.

Edited 31 July 2019 by Beechey

[Steve_Walsh5]

4 minutes ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

Wow! He really goes after Puel, but doesn't really have much to say about Ranieri's sacking.

He won’t have any respect for Puel, he’ll respect Claudio for what he did here so won’t say a bad word about him even though it was obvious he was taking us down.

[Aus Fox]

How any one can dislike or say negative things about this lad is a joke. Leicester through and through just like all of us and a true legend!

[UniFox21]

Absolute class act, legend of the club right there. That interview just beams class and respect for the club. 

 

However, that gives a damming verdict on Puel. I was always hoping the media amplified the issues, but how wrong was I. The key point for me was suggesting Puel wanted the entire title winning team gone. Ridiculous to try and chop the entire winning squad out and his man management, just wow.

 

 

[UniFox21]

1 minute ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

He won’t have any respect for Puel, he’ll respect Claudio for what he did here so won’t say a bad word about him even though it was obvious he was taking us down.

You can't blame him though. For Puel to never have a conversation with him? Pathetic. 

[StanSP]

4 minutes ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

Well Puel sounds like a cvnt. 

I feel bad for lending support to Puel now. I know King was being frozen out from playing but it's just downright rude to treat a player like that, let alone it being a player who had been all the way down to League One with us and come up with us to experience the highest high. 

 

Puel really was a miserable bastard wasn't he? 

[Steve_Walsh5]

1 minute ago, UniFox21 said:

You can't blame him though. For Puel to never have a conversation with him? Pathetic. 

No blame whatsoever with King. He won’t have any respect for Puel so won’t hold any punches when speaking about him. 

 

@MarriedaLeicesterGirl said that he doesn’t say much about Ranieri sacking. I think that’s because of the respect for him that he won’t say a bad word.

[don_danbury]

3 minutes ago, StanSP said:

I feel bad for lending support to Puel now. I know King was being frozen out from playing but it's just downright rude to treat a player like that, let alone it being a player who had been all the way down to League One with us and come up with us to experience the highest high. 

 

Puel really was a miserable bastard wasn't he? 

tbf what was puel going to say to him? he only knew about 3 english words.

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

4 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

The key point for me was suggesting Puel wanted the entire title winning team gone. Ridiculous to try and chop the entire winning squad out and his man management, just wow.

 

 

I remember Shinji had really improved his game under Shakespeare, and spoke about trying to get into the box more. I wondered why Puel dropped him.

[Cameron Davidson]

3 minutes ago, don_danbury said:

tbf what was puel going to say to him? he only knew about 3 english words.

“King, have positiviteeeee” 

[420Hashish]

Just now, Cameron Davidson said:

“King, have positiviteeeee” 

More intensiteeeeee, qualiteeeee

[Poznan34]

Top man, hope he gets a testimonial 

[420Hashish]

Puel really seems like a jackass now after that interview, but maybe let's not entirely judge from one player's POV. Maybe we could wait till one of the regular players to give their verdict.

 

It still is a crappy move to not inform the player that they're not part of the plans. No wonder why the team seemed so morally drained.

 

[SemperEadem]

And to think some fans give him so much disrespect. 

[smr]

There are no words for how much of a legend he is. Such a top bloke.

Edited 1 August 2019 by smr

[HybridFox]

Great read from a top guy. Always a club legend and wish when his time does come, he is able to bow out on a high. A testimonial could not be more deserving.

[AKCJ]

He is the physical embodiment of Leicester City to me.

 

Not flash, gets on with it, very professional, a family man, absolutely lovely bloke and there's nothing he wont do for the badge.

 

Absolute hero.

[ScouseFox]

genuinely think he is my favourite person in the world 

[walkerleeds]

"Last January, with Puel still in charge, King had a chance to go to Nottingham Forest, Leicester’s rivals. “Forest are a great club, history, tradition, really good stadium, great fans, but I don’t think you can wear Leicester for so long, make all those memories, and then go and play for Forest. It was hard enough going to Derby (that January) because there’s a little rivalry there. Forest was always going to be a no, no.”

 

He really is one of us isn't he?

[Stevosevic]

What a guy 

[FoyleFox]

10 minutes ago, DrezZone said:

Puel really seems like a jackass now after that interview, but maybe let's not entirely judge from one player's POV. Maybe we could wait till one of the regular players to give their verdict.

 

It still is a crappy move to not inform the player that they're not part of the plans. No wonder why the team seemed so morally drained.

 

King isn't the first player to say Puel didn't speak to him. Utterly shocking and yes, understandable that the players seemed devoid of moral or a plan.