davieG Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52401140 Batman running loose at Christmas, that play-off semi-final defeat at Vicarage Road and the moment the most unlikely Premier League title was won. Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel joined Peter Crouch to discuss the club's greatest achievement, and everything that led to it, on the latest episode of That Peter Crouch Podcast. Germ beards, dogs and Nicklas Bendtner - That Peter Crouch Podcast episode three The Denmark international has made 330 club appearances and won the Premier League since joining the then-Championship side in 2011, but the 33-year-old explains why there have been plenty of "laughs" along the way. Christmas in Copenhagen It's 6 December, 2015 and Leicester are two points clear at the top of the Premier League after winning 3-0 at Swansea. The team have stayed in Wales overnight and are heading to Copenhagen for their Christmas party. Danish native and event organiser Schmeichel is excitedly waiting at the airport for his teammates to arrive in their fancy dress costumes... Leicester City players in fancy dress at the Christmas party in 2015 Schmeichel: "I was one of the first to arrive at the airport so I saw everyone coming down the stairs in their fancy dress costumes. There were people getting out of the lift with Pacman, who was Wes Morgan. It was brilliant because it was so big he could store his beer in the costume and he didn't have to carry it. Danny Drinkwater, Ben Hamer, Matty King and Andy King were dressed as Ninja Turtles and I was Mr Incredible. "The hotel wasn't too far from the busiest square in Copenhagen. We stopped there to have a drink and then we went to Tivoli Gardens, which is the world's oldest theme park and it marks the centre of Copenhagen. But everyone thought we were part of the attractions so kids were stopping us and wanting pictures with the Ninja Turtles. "With Copenhagen being such a small city, if something like that happens, the papers are going to find out very quickly so we had some great photos. There is one of Robert Huth dressed as the best Batman ever. We were sat at dinner and Huthy is sat there looking for trouble that he is going to sort out. If we are doing something we are going to do it properly." Pride, joy and pure ecstasy It's 2 May, 2016 and second-place Tottenham are playing rivals Chelsea in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge. If Spurs fail to win, leaders Leicester will be crowned champions of England for the first time in their history. Spurs were leading 2-0 when Kapser Schmeichel turned on his television Schmeichel: "All the way through the run-in I hadn't watched a single Tottenham game so I went with my wife and kids for dinner and tried to block it out. I was a mess in the restaurant and my wife found it hilarious. It was horrible, so we ended up going home with half an hour left. I took the kids to bed and my wife came in to say goodnight and she told me Tottenham were 2-0 up, so I thought I might as well watch it. "I went to the lounge and Gary Cahill scored so I told myself to stay calm. Then Eden Hazard equalised but the last few minutes were torture. Chelsea had a late free-kick that Willian was going to take, which he passed into the corner, and the relief when he did that was unbelievable. "It was pride, joy and pure ecstasy. I can't describe it. I celebrated with my family, who I wanted to be with, because they had been with me through the whole journey. A lot of the lads were at Jamie Vardy's house so when we were done at home I drove to Jamie's and we got on it from there. "For Leicester, it was incredible and we wanted to see what was happening so we drove into town. Four or five days later, 'Vards' put a few pictures in our group asking who the cars parked at his house belonged to, because no one had been to claim them." The moment it all changed It's 12 May, 2013 and Leicester have been beaten in the final minute of their Championship play-off semi final at Watford. Anthony Knockaert could have put the Foxes through in injury-time but his penalty is saved, before Watford go down the other end and Troy Deeney scores with practically the last kick of the game... Watford's Troy Deeney smashes the winner in the 2013 Championship play-off semi final against Leicester Schmeichel: "The spirit that was built in the club started in the Championship with Nigel Pearson, where we trained very hard, but off the pitch we could have a laugh. Having had that camaraderie is great and a lot of us had played together for a long time. It helped us that we were such good friends off the pitch as well. "There is no doubt that Watford game was horrific in so many ways. I have never seen it back. Because Watford were renovating their stadium, the tunnel was still at the far end where they scored. Then the pitch invasion happened and half of our team was stranded at one end and the other half ran back in the dressing room. "It lasted for over an hour and we were in the dressing room for so long that we didn't see each other properly after the game because some people were caught out there. "So we didn't see each other until the first day of pre-season, but from the first day, everyone was in ridiculous shape and people had been stewing all summer. This had hurt and the mentality was we were going to hammer this league, and that is what we did."
foxfanazer Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 Kasper actually loves Pearson more than I do I think
Miquel The Work Geordie Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 He's good value on it, says the Arsenal away game had a similar effect to the Watford result. Rates Maddison very highly in all.
davieG Posted 24 April 2020 Author Posted 24 April 2020 A bit more from the https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/18403020.leicester-citys-kasper-schmeichel-talks-depth-working-watford-head-coach-nigel-pearson/ Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has spoken about working with Watford head coach Nigel Pearson and his remaining legacy at his former club. Speaking on the BBC's That Peter Crouch Podcast, presented by Hornets' fan and Radio One presenter Chris Stark, Schmeichel said the Foxes' recent successes owes a lot to the work put in by Pearson during his time with the club. "I've always said that we owe Nigel a great deal because even today, so much of the infrastructure of the club is what Nigel put in place and the staff, basically everyone from Nigel's staff is still there," he said. "He was so good at looking at the big picture, he was so good at planning and implementing ways of getting the structure of the club in the right place and without doubt he deserves so much credit." Schmeichel also focused on Pearson's man-management and said the 56-year-old was particularly adept at keeping his players happy. "I've always thought that the most underrated quality, and for some reason it doesn't really exist that much in football anymore, is man-management," he said. "Treating people as people and not just a player or a number and Nigel just doesn't do that, he gets invested in people. You see a massive difference in us when players feel appreciated, feel valued, you've got 11 players that are playing, but the rest aren't playing, that's such a hard situation to manage and Nigel's brilliant at managing that. "He treats every single player like his own kids." One of Schmeichel's more surprising revelations was that Pearson is also a very skilled dancer and is even capable of performing the splits, if the mood takes him. "He's got a really soft, gentle side to him that you probably don't see," he said. "I think what's unfortunate for him is he adores and loves football, just pure football. It's all the circus around football that gets to him, that he doesn't like. All the media talk that as a manager, you have to do, like your press conference, you have to sit there and listen to all these questions. I think he just wants to be a coach, I think he just wants to be out there on the pitch doing that, what he loves. "He's a complex guy. He's an unbelievable ballroom dancer. I've seen this in person and you think 'Woah, where did that come from, that was incredible'. "We'd won the league everyone was dancing and he was happy and he just did the splits. You could see that it wasn't his first rodeo."
AKCJ Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 As if Nige can do the splits. Is there anything this man can't do??!
FLAN Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 Rates Cambiasso massively which goes against what Vardy thought of him?
StanSP Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 Great to listen to. He's really articulate and a good talker. Big advocate of what Pearson did for us and it speaks volumes that he's still so highly thought of given all that's happened since he left.
StanSP Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 The stuff about Seaman and Vardy is great. Vardy's routine doesn't even go to gym, and all the Red Bull he has. Madman . Kasper sounded angry that Vardy got all the hilarity plaudits for the 'ooh Danish friends' at Southampton away but Kasper did it first with 'ooh English friends'
Miquel The Work Geordie Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 49 minutes ago, FLAN said: Rates Cambiasso massively which goes against what Vardy thought of him? Kasper rated him as a player and professional but also alluded to him having the ear of the staff and 'coaching on the pitch' - it clearly benefited us but you can see why it *might* wind certain characters up the wrong way. I don't think Vardy's quabble with Cambiasso was his quality, more him doling out instructions.
StanSP Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 Just now, Miquel The Work Geordie said: Kasper rated him as a player and professional but also alluded to him having the ear of the staff and 'coaching on the pitch' - it clearly benefited us but you can see why it *might* wind certain characters up the wrong way. I don't think Vardy's quabble with Cambiasso was his quality, more him doling out instructions. Even says Esteban can be a manager right now if he wanted and that's the feeling he got when he was with us in 14/15.
ealingfox Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 Nice of them to invite Andy King's little-known brother Matty to the Copenhagen Christmas party.
Dan Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 1 hour ago, FLAN said: Rates Cambiasso massively which goes against what Vardy thought of him? I thought he said a lot of the things Vardy had supposedly said on him as well but Schmeichel saw it in a very different light to how Vardy did, if that makes sense. Find it quite interesting that Ranieri did not get one single mention throughout.
AKCJ Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 1 hour ago, Dan LCFC said: I thought he said a lot of the things Vardy had supposedly said on him as well but Schmeichel saw it in a very different light to how Vardy did, if that makes sense. Find it quite interesting that Ranieri did not get one single mention throughout. I think Kasper appreciates the "parched" players. But it's completely the opposite for Vardy.
Fox92 Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 As a club we wouldn't be in this position without Nigel Pearson, absolutely no doubt about it. The club turned around when he walked in (on both occasions). But the fact players like Kasper recognise this is astonishing.
Dan Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 14 minutes ago, Fox92 said: As a club we wouldn't be in this position without Nigel Pearson, absolutely no doubt about it. The club turned around when he walked in (on both occasions). But the fact players like Kasper recognise this is astonishing. Says it all to me really that the players think about him the way plenty of fans do even despite his highest ever finish being 14th in the Premier League. That said there's no doubt he'd have bettered that the year after, though not quite convinced he'd have won the league. I think reading between the lines you just know it was Pearson's work and Ranieri's final touch.
eblair Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 says a lot our two best players at the club still talk about Nigel in glowing terms
Lambert09 Posted 24 April 2020 Posted 24 April 2020 3 hours ago, AKCJ said: I think Kasper appreciates the "parched" players. But it's completely the opposite for Vardy. I think thats because he probably is the biggest "parched" culprit we have Couldnt lay in to someone for doing what he does could he. At least now he's the captain on the field
ScouseFox Posted 25 April 2020 Posted 25 April 2020 finally an explanation for why he puts our team under pressure at every opportunity he can. cos he forgets that they're probably all knackered cos they actually have to run round.
NewEnglandFox Posted 26 April 2020 Posted 26 April 2020 On 24/04/2020 at 06:27, AKCJ said: As if Nige can do the splits. Is there anything this man can't do??! We've known of Nige's contortionism for years. Maybe we just didn't respect what he was saying for what he was saying.
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