Former Player Remembers: Dean Hammond

[davieG]

https://www.lcfc.com/news/2035590/former-player-remembers-dean-hammond

 

Extract

 

Twelve months later, Dean did get promoted to the Premier League with Leicester City.

Explaining the move to King Power Stadium in August 2013, Dean said: “I’d always thought I’d like to play for Leicester. I knew the quality of players at the club, the quality of the manager and the ambition of the owners. I spoke to Nigel [Pearson] and, as with my previous moves, I didn’t have to think about it too much because I was going to a really good club which was trying to progress.

"It was amazing to sign for Leicester and what a season we had in the Championship! The group within the dressing room was so talented. It was full of young, hungry players who wanted to prove a point, and then there were a few of us older, experienced players, so the mix and the blend was good.

“The team spirit was brilliant, one of the best I’ve experienced in my career, it was a close-knit group. There was lots of fun but we were very dedicated as well. Everyone loved going to the training ground. It was just brilliant.

 

“I was aware from the start that there was definitely a Club culture and this was led by Nigel and his coaching staff. Nigel was a fantastic manager, the best I’ve worked under. As a man-manager, he was fantastic. There were lots of people at the Club who had the same values and that rubbed off on the players. This culture came from the very top. The owners are fantastic, they really are.

“Players like Jamie Vardy, Wes Morgan and Kasper Schmeichel are Club legends who not only won the Championship, but also the Premier League and reached the Champions League Quarter-Final. They deserved it because they’re good players and good people.

“Having started with Brighton in League 2, to finally achieve my career goal of playing in the Premier League was fantastic. We started the season very well. We drew with Everton and Arsenal and beat Stoke. The Manchester United game will go down in history. We were 2-0 down, then 3-1 and then we won 5-3! I can still picture myself on the pitch, I can still hear the noise when Cambiasso equalised. It was the loudest I’ve ever heard.

“I really enjoyed that 'great escape' season, despite the run of bad results. We never lost by more than two goals, the games were very close and we’d proved at the beginning of the season that we could win games in the division.

“The biggest thing was that Nigel remained very consistent with his message, which was work hard, keep the routine, keep doing things over and over again and things would change. And they did. 

 

“Despite the very poor run, the belief remained within the squad. Then Nigel changed the shape - we went with three at the back. To get two players up front really helped, as did the form of Jamie Vardy, our hunger to survive the drop and the team spirit. When we started scoring again and winning games, something switched. Confidence in football is like magic. We had pace and teams couldn’t live with us.

“Unfortunately I tore my calf four times that season, I just couldn’t get it right. Luckily enough, I came back to play a part in those last nine games, coming on now and again from the bench. To be around it was fantastic.

“The players carried on the form into the next season. If you continue with the momentum of winning throughout the season, you win the title and that’s what the players did. The group was maturing together. Then the quality of [N'golo] Kanté was added, which made a huge difference. Riyad Mahrez that year was unbelievable, as was Jamie Vardy.

"It gets forgotten how good the back four was, with Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan, Robert Huth and Christian Fuchs. Marc Albrighton also gets forgotten. Every player in that team was brilliant. Also the support network behind the players was there.”

 

In October of the title winning season, Dean went on a season-long loan to Sheffield United.

“That was a tough time," he admitted. "I’d had a long period of success in my career, but it didn’t work out at Sheffield. I learnt a lot about myself in that period. I’d love to have been part of the title-winning side at Leicester, but it wasn’t to be. You have to take the ups with the downs.”

Dean left Bramall Lane at the end of the season, but returned to Leicester in the spring of 2017.

“Steve Beaglehole asked me to speak to the Under-23s, who were struggling with injuries and inexperience. Then he asked me train again and then he asked me to play as an over-age player of 34 for the Under-23s to help them. It was a great four or five months, working with Hamza Choudhury, Harvey Barnes, Kieran Dewsbury-Hall, Elliott Moore and loads of others. 

“That led to me becoming Academy Loan Manager, which was a really rewarding role. It’s a big role within football clubs now and I think it will become bigger. If you’ve got good Academy players coming through and you can get them the right loan move to the right club, they can really thrive, come back to the parent club and get in the first team, like Harvey Barnes did, coming back from West Brom.

"I loved that role and wouldn’t have left it, but my wife had a back operation and I had to become a full-time dad for four or five months. I’m now doing some media work with Leicester and Southampton. I love be watching, analysing and talking about games, it’s in my blood. I'm grateful to have had so many great experiences in my career.”

[deep blue]

Thanks for that.  Great article.  It's interesting how he knew well before he joined us what a great club we have here, and I wonder whether that's widely acknowledged within the game here and, in particular, whether that reputation might help us to secure signings from within the Football Leaguewhen in competition with other clubs for a player's signature.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

I have a mate who’s a Saints fan and Hammond was his favourite player, including for some years after he left. Always got the sense he was a top pro, a nice bloke and a hard worker. I think the top end of the PL would have passed him by, but he was a good squad player to have around in the promotion and great escape seasons.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Solid servant for us. Good bloke too.

[Corky]

Played in slow motion, good back-up for a couple of years to be fair.

 

All the players love Nige, don't they?  I'm sure everyone of these with players from 2011-2015 say he's the best manager they've worked for.

[Danizen]

It's weird that this article about a player who would come on and help us see out a tough win gets posted today when we went on to have exactly that kind of game against Villa. 

 

He was good in that Championship winning season. A few of those wins could have been draws without him.

[Hitesh]

On 21/02/2021 at 15:02, Corky said:

Played in slow motion, good back-up for a couple of years to be fair.

 

All the players love Nige, don't they?  I'm sure everyone of these with players from 2011-2015 say he's the best manager they've worked for.

Not sure Chris Wood would agree, and Wayne Brown maybe