Article of The Day

[Ford Super Sunday]

Been using the Lexis Nexis online archive to search for some newspaper articles for my upcoming dissertation. In the process, there are some gem articles on there about Leicester City. If I remember I'll post one or two a day, but this one to get it started.

The Sun, February 26, 2000

If Robbie Savage's brains were made of chocolate he wouldn't have enough to fill a Smartie.

THEY don't do things by halves at Filbert Street. Ticket scandals, La Manga, Martin O'Neill and Ken Bates swapping insults, Alan Shearer teeing up Neil Lennon's head.

And tomorrow their seventh visit to Wembley in nine years when they take on Tranmere in the Worthington Cup Final.

Then there's Alan Birchenall.

For 30 years, the Birch has been a root-and-branch member of Leicester City, first as a player and, since 1983, entertainer/public relations officer/court and pitch-side jester/fan-with-a-microphone and general lightener of spirits.

The Birch can take all the fuss about the tickets, the fire extinguishers and the boardroom capers in his 54-year-old stride.

But all that stuff about boring, boring Leicester.

Well, that got under his rhinoceros hide.

"I don't usually get involved," said the Birch, conveniently forgetting the time he grabbed the mike during the interval of a match with Coventry in which both sides had a man sent off.

"It will soon be a game for fairies," he yelled. "We might as well make it a non-contact sport and stick 22 Lionel Blairs out there."

IT was the recent visit of Middlesbrough that had the Birch up to his old tricks. He said: "I went out to warm up the crowd in dressing-gown, slippers and night-cap.

"I even got the security guards to wheel me out on a first-aid trolley.

"I jumped off, rubbed my eyes and said 'Oh, it's so boring here. We're at Wembley again, in the top half of the Premiership and we've got two thirds of the team out'.

"I was still wearing the gear in the tunnel when the teams came out.

"Martin O'Neill walked past, did a double take and said 'I don't believe it'.

"Then, when the final whistle went, the lads all lay down on the pitch and fell asleep."

And then Leicester went and bought Stan Collymore. And they really were fun.

"La Manga?" said the Birch. "Don't mention it. I think they've renamed it La Mangled...

"Okay, Fireman Stan is doing a bit of community service, mowing Doug Ellis' lawn the last I heard."

BIRCH added: "Yes, the lad was silly but, in my day at Chelsea, we damn near set fire to hotels not just messed about with fire extinguishers. And when we had trouble with chairmen, we didn't just call them names.

"I remember one post- season tour when I went out water-skiing with Peter Bonetti and Joan Mears, wife of chairman Brian.

"As she was going round, a ski whacked her and we lifted her back into the boat and laid her out on the beach. Then we started giving her the old mouth to mouth. I got really stuck in and all the other lads were queuing up - well, she was right tasty looking.

"Anyway, I'm in the bar that evening when Brian walks up and says he had heard we had dragged his missus out of the sea.

"There's me thinking I was going to get a massive rise when he says 'I don't know whether to thank you or b* you'. A month later, I was on my way to Palace...

"So Stanley will be okay. He's at the best place in the country for him. I know he likes a crack but HE now knows what this club is about and that he's surrounded by talented players.

"That's what most p me off about the boring Leicester stuff.

"Flowers is a goalkeeper most Premiership clubs would take tomorrow, Elliott a centre-half who has represented Scotland, Sinclair is better than he ever was at Chelsea, while Taggart could well be Player of the Year.

"Then you go along the middle of the park - Guppy, Lennon, Izzet and Savage - a midfield you could rate alongside Manchester United and Arsenal.

"Up front, you have Heskey, a guy who frightened the Argies so much they had to wheel off their skipper and then Cottee whose record speaks for itself."

HE added: "I used to call Heskey 'The Carpet' because he spent so much time on the floor but he's come on so much this season.

"The only trouble about his performance against Argentina is he's put another Pounds 3million on his transfer fee and people will be wanting to move him on quicker. All in all, how the hell can people call players like these boring?"

Robbie Savage, of course, was the guy Spurs fans turned on in the Worthington Cup Final last year after his role leading up to the dismissal of Justin Edinburgh.

"Lil is Lil," said the Birch. "Outside Leicester, they all hate him. Here he is a folk hero. There's more meat on a toothpick and, to see him clothes off, you wonder where he gets all his energy from. But he's no headless chicken.

"But he is a showman. He's always telling us how wonderful he is. Even when he has a poor game, he thinks he should be man of the match.

"He's always saying: 'Birch, didn't you think I was great, today?' And I'm always saying 'Well, not exactly great. Good, maybe, but...If brains were chocolate he wouldn't have enough to fill a Smartie. Only a joke, Lil."

THE Birch added: "Everyone loves him, the players defend him to death. Married? No, he's got a desirable and her hair is just about blonder than his.

"But he needs his roots doing for Wembley because he was looking a bit dowdy in the canteen the other day.

"Then there's Muzzy, who has taken this Turkish thing on now.

"I asked him if he could actually speak the lingo and he said enough to get by on, he could order a doner kebab.

"And what about Lennon? No disrespect to Paul Scholes or Dennis Wise, who I love, but if Lenny was English, he would be vying for their job.

"Talking about Dennis, did you know I adopted him when we were both out in Tobago last year?

"I caught him drinking CocaCola one night and I made it my job to get him back on the bendy road. Which he did quite well."

Wise survived to have his night at Wembley on Wednesday.

Now Leicester are heavy favourites to make it two victories under the Twin Towers in the last three years.

And, believe it or not, everyone appears to be fit.

The Birch said: "We had eight injuries at one time and they WERE all genuine. But you know the best injury cure in football? Wembley finals.

"We have even got Ian Marshall fit and available and he's been injured to my knowledge for 20 years. My mother moves quicker than him..."

The Birch, granted a testimonial year by Leicester, is currently writing a book. As he says: "It's already thicker than War and Peace and I haven't even kicked a ball yet."

No doubt it will include the tale of the day Racquel Welch turned up to watch a Manchester United game at Stamford Bridge.

BIRCH recalled: "Racquel is tasty enough today but she was bloody beautiful 30 years ago. The biggest cheer of the afternoon was when she tried to climb into one of the dugouts.

"She then invited Peter Osgood and me back to The Dorchester but the only problem was we were taking the wives out in Windsor at nine o'clock.

"We went for an hour and didn't get back until Sunday tea-time..."

Ah, those were the days.

Hindsight is a great thing

[h1210]

Can someone remind me what ticket scandals they're referring to?

[davieG]

Some of the players were alleged, can't remember who or if it was proved sold their allocations and they ended up with Spurs fans in the LCFC section of Wembley and a Leicester woman was assaulted by a Spurs fan. We'll that's how i remember it.

[dave_the_fox]

TC weren't it?

[Ford Super Sunday]

August 21st 1994- Mail on Sunday

£6 million man;

(1) Joachim an cap the lot (2) 'Prices are going through the roof because there are too few good players' RICK PARRY, PREMIER LEAGUE CHIEF EXECUTIV

BYLINE: Joe Melling

SECTION: Pg. 84

LENGTH: 1240 words

JULIAN JOACHIM is lightning fast, skilful and a natural goalscorer. In an inflated British transfer market, he could be the first £6 million man.

Premiership fans might have heard the name but most will never have seen him play. That is because today, just a month before his 20th birthday, his introduction will be made with newly-promoted Leicester City against Newcastle.

And, in a Premier League seemingly awash with funds, a host of managers with money to burn can be guaranteed to home in on Joachim at the first glimmer of evidence that he might fulfil his potential.

Blackburn lashed out £5 million on a similar gamble in prising Chris Sutton away from Norwich. It seems frantic Everton were prepared to make a similar offer for Crystal Palace's Chris Armstrong.

There are simply too few good players to go around and, as in any other free market, there is a scarcity premium to be paid.

Liverpool and Everton have millions to spend following heavy cash investments from their wealthy backers. Newcastle have spent more than £20 million in bringing about their rapid transformation and will buy again.

Blackburn have spent £30 million and there is little evidence to suggest the cheque book will not be out again whenever it is felt the team can be strengthened.

Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor has expressed his fears about spiralling transfer fees in the domestic market causing clubs to search for cheaper imports from abroad and has even suggested that a capping system could be a sensible solution.

But Rick Parry, his counterpart at the buoyant Premier League, will have none of it. 'The situation is all to do with market forces,' he says. 'It is very difficult to buck the market.'

The dilemma for a smaller club like Leicester, for whom a 16,000 attendance would be average, is to have the strength to resist offers of such massive scale.

Joachim, for example, insists he is extremely contented at Leicester. Manager Brian Little says he believes the club would not be willing to sell. For a club like Leicester, survival in the Premiership can mean more money than even the most inflated transfer fee. And Joachim is essential to that ambition.

'I really do hope he becomes the big star we know he can be,' says Little. 'Our promotion has given him the best stage and if he can play the lead role on it then I am aware it is likely to cause us other problems. But that is all part and parcel of the way the game is going.

'If you want me to make a prediction I would have to say that Joachim has the potential to become a top class player simply because of his great attributes, pace and an ability to score goals. Precious commodities which are very much in demand.

'Dave Sexton has had him with the England under-21 team and he likens him to Romario. When you see him in full flow you can see the resemblance.'

Joachim, like Gary Lineker before him, has progressed through the ranks at Filbert Street and he is not at all convinced there is a guarantee of greater satisfaction away from Leicester.

'I like it here,' he explains. 'I have been with the club since I was 13. It is not a question of lacking in ambition. I've set my sights on getting into the full England squad this season.

'I accept there will be other clubs looking to see if I can do well in the Premiership but I can honestly say I have not given it a thought about leaving.'

There are many strands which come together to make such a complex transfer market. Despite the rising prices and the increased foreign imports, it does not worry Parry.

'The only reason why prices are going through the roof at the present time is because there is intense competition to sign too few good players. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the transfer record should be raised to £6 million in the near future.

'I am not in the least bit dismayed by the situation. There are top businessmen who are investing not only their money but also their acumen. Most people accept now that the standard is high in the Premiership. Good players are at a premium. It's as simple as that.

'The real solution is to produce better quality players in greater numbers and that is what we are working towards in a major way at the present time. The £5 million for Sutton came about purely because market forces were at work.'

[Joe.]

Keep these coming Ian, interesting reading. 16 years on and how times have changed. £6 million is a drop in the ocean these days.

[Ford Super Sunday]

Today's selection is less feature, more linkages with Leicester, for a real hindsight look.

The Observer, 17 December 1995

SOCCER: LEICESTER LOOK TO O'NEILL

MARTIN O'NEILL is widely expected to be appointed manager of Leicester City this week following his resignation from the chair at Norwich yesterday morning.

Robert Chase, the Norwich chairman, will this morning have talks with the assistant manager Paul Franklin - who was in charge for yesterday's game at Filbert Street.

"I am very sad and disappointed to confirm that Martin tendered his resignation at 11.30 this morning," said Chase after the match. "It was not accepted. He had completed just six months of a two-year contract and things have gone quite well."

It was a bad day for Norwich: hours after losing their manager they also gave away a two-goal lead to their promotion rivals in a fast, compelling match, although what was happening back stage was even more dramatic.

Mike Walker, himself a former Norwich manager who then suffered a brief and unhappy spell with Everton, was interviewed for the Leicester job by the club's chairman Martin George on Friday and his appointment was expected to be confirmed yesterday afternoon. In Filbert Street's refurbished corridors after the game he looked a rather forlorn figure.

"I've read I'm the 2 1 favourite for the Leicester job, but then I was favourite after being interviewed for the Wales job and nothing happened," he said. "I'll have to wait and see. I thought the interview went well but I never expected anything to happen before Monday or Tuesday."

Sympathy for Chase is tempered by the memory of how he let Walker leave Carrow Road and how a small club on the verge of notable achievement was allowed to decline.

But it would be a great irony if O'Neill was now to join Leicester, who have twice been controversially bereaved by the loss of Brian Little to Aston Villa and, earlier this month, of Mark McGhee to Wolves. David Nish was in charge yesterday.

O'Neill, however, was Leicester's target before McGhee. They interviewed the articulate Northern Irishman a year ago, but he turned down the job to stay with Wycombe Wanderers, although it has since been suggested he regretted the decision.

Hardly surprisingly he was not at yesterday's match, but his comments in the programme sounded like a fresh application for the job. "I had the possibility of signing to become manager of Leicester City but I told Mr George at the time that the only reason I did not take the offer was for reasons of timing," he said.

"I was very impressed with the whole Leicester set-up but at the time I had what I suppose was a nonsensical dream that Wycombe could carry on climbing the leagues."

The pace and exuberance of yesterday's match suggested that both clubs could prosper without a manager. Norwich went ahead through Darren Eadie and Robert Fleck made it 2 0 after 32 minutes.

Leicester scored with a Mike Whitlow free kick in the 36th minute, equalised through Iwan Roberts in the 67th and won the game with a goal from their extravagantly gifted substitute Emile Heskey in the 80th.

Leicester: Poole; Hill, Whitlow, Walsh, Carey, Parker, Corica, Taylor, Robins (Joachim, 81), Roberts, Rolling (Heskey, 64).

Norwich: Gunn; Polston, Ullathorne, Newsome, Prior, Milligan, Bowen, Fleck (Scott, 67), Carey, Ward, Eadie (Adams, 9).

Referee: T Heilbron (Wearside).

DThe Guardian, 15 May 1999

Forest set sights on O'Neill

Martin O'Neill may be ready to walk out on Leicester City to fill the managerial vacancy at their east Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest.

He now seems certain to be invited to make an emotional return to a club which he served with such distinction as a player.

If the 47-year-old Irishman accepts the offer of a lucrative deal he could even be formally unveiled on May 28, the 20th anniversary of Forest's famous European Cup win over Malmo in Munich, a game in which he played.

The installation of O'Neill at a club whose relegation from the Premiership was confirmed two weeks ago is the main plank of a proposed multimillion-pound takeover at the City Ground which, it is believed, is fronted by Nigel Doughty of the leading equity fund management group Doughty-Hanson.

It is believed that the Forest board discussed the possibility of Doughty acquiring a controlling interest in Forest at a meeting last week. O'Neill has been pencilled in as a replacement for Ron Atkinson, whose brief tenure at Forest in a caretaker capacity will end tomorrow when he retires.

So O'Neill's final game in charge of Leicester may well be tomorrow's meeting with Forest at the City Ground. If he does move back to the banks of the River Trent he is certain to take with him his current assistant John Robertson, another member of Forest's 1979 side.

It is believed that O'Neill is being tempted to Forest by the promise of substantial funds to help regenerate their senior squad and he will be provided with a pounds 10m war chest if he succeeds Atkinson.

Crucially, he would also be given complete control of all football-related matters at the City Ground, something which he has always insisted, privately at least, he was denied at Filbert Street.

Indeed, it was what he construed as interference by senior members of Leicester's administrative team which effectively drove a wedge between him and his board of directors.

His mounting sense of frustration manifested itself in his refusal to sign a new and improved contract which was first placed on the table more than three months ago.

Although O'Neill has been in charge at Leicester only since December 1995 he has transformed the club's fortunes and in the process established himself as one of the brightest young managers in British football.

News of a vacancy at Leicester would interest two former Liverpool managers: Roy Evans, who has been unemployed since leaving Anfield late last year, and Graeme Souness, who was recently dismissed by the Portuguese club Benfica.

Mail on Sunday, 04 June 2000

City move for Moyes

LEICESTER CITY want Preston North End's talented young manager David Moyes to take over from Martin O'Neill, who joined Celtic last week.

City have already made discreet soundings about Moyes, who has earned a big reputation in guiding North End to the First Division.

He is their first choice, but they also have a shortlist which includes Peter Taylor, Steve Bruce and Bruce Rioch.

The opportunity to take over at a Premiership club who have qualified for next season's UEFA Cup would be hard to refuse, but the Lancashire side will fight desperately to keep Moyes at Deepdale.

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

07 March 2004, The Telegraph

Leicester City footballers 'admit to consensual sex' with their German accusers but deny rape

The three Premiership footballers held in a Spanish jail accused of raping three young women have admitted to having sexual intercourse with them but claim that it was consensual, according to local newspaper reports.

Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Keith Gillespie, all players with Leicester City, are said to have made the admission to detectives investigating the alleged attack at La Manga holiday resort in Murcia, south-east Spain.

The newspaper, La Verdad de Murcia, reported that the information had come from court papers seen by one of its journalists. The report was later repeated by El Mundo, a Spanish national newspaper. A police spokesman in Cartagena told The Telegraph that the journalist had used a "credible source" but declined to comment further.

Three German women of African origin allege that the players forced their way into their room early on Monday at the Hyatt hotel in La Manga. The women were then sexually assaulted, sustaining injuries, they allege.

The women complained to police and nine players were arrested on Wednesday evening during what was supposed to be a five-day training break on the Costa Blanca. If found guilty, the three players in custody face jail sentences of up to 12 years.

The newspaper report also alleges that the women claimed to have been beaten by some Leicester players. The women have submitted themselves and their clothes to forensic tests.

The three players are being held in Sangonera prison near the city of Murcia, accused of "sexual aggression with penetration".

Dickov, 31, Leicester's Glasgow-born captain, is married with three children, while Sinclair, 32, and Gillespie, 29, live with their girlfriends. A fourth player, James Scowcroft, was released on bail on Friday. Charges against Matt Elliott and Lilian Nalis were dropped.

The players were visited by Foreign Office representatives yesterday. George Outhwaite, the British vice-consul in Alicante, spent 40 minutes with them and said later: "You cannot describe them as being cheerful. They were the best they could be under the circumstances."

Mr Outhwaite confirmed that the players were sharing a cell in the two-storey modern prison. The vice-consul said that he did not know when the three would be next summoned to court. "That is entirely up to the judge," he said.

Sangonera prison has gardens and allows inmates to play sport, including football. One lawyer, Daniel Rodrigo, said however: "The problem is not the place but the people inside. Sex attackers always have a very hard life inside." Relatives are expected to fly to Spain.

Lawyers for Leicester City will try to get the three freed from custody this week, if only on bail. The football club insisted yesterday morning that all its players were innocent of the allegations against them.

A spokesman said: "They are innocent and we will move heaven and earth to bring them back."

[Jon the Hat]

How different things might have been had we got David Moyes instead of Peter Taylor.

[ACF]

Far out. David Moyes

I knew about La Manga, even though I was what, 7 at the time. Was watching Sky News UK over here to hear about it.

Sad 7 year old child, I know.

[Fosse Boy]

Those were the days my friend...

[ACF]

Those were the days my friend...

Born too late.

[Fosse Boy]

Born too late.

I was born too late to really appreciate them for what great times they were.

[ACF]

I was born too late to really appreciate them for what great times they were.

[Guest Bilo]

If David Moyes had joined instead of Peter Taylor. Gutting.

Fascinating to read all of those articles, especially Joachim. What a player he could have been if his career had taken off.

[Ford Super Sunday]

August 21, 1994- The Guardian

BIG RETURNS FROM LITTLE IMAGINATION: TODAY'S STRIKING CONFRONTATION AT ST JAMES' PARK - THE CONVERTED POWERHOUSE VERSUS A SILKY, QUICKSILVER ASSASSIN

BRIAN LITTLE, the affable and highly effective young manager who has taken Leicester into the Premier League, remembers assessing the characters he found at Filbert Street and quickly deciding to 'hang my hat' on Steve Walsh. At first, unfortunately, the hat kept blowing off, and it was after the fourteenth dismissal of the large and combustible centre-back's career that Little hit upon the solution: he turned Walsh into a striker.

Suddenly, instead of getting into trouble, Walsh was making trouble for others. In 37 League matches since the switch was made, and despite the intervention of a serious knee injury, he has found the net 20 times. As Little puts it: 'The club couldn't have afforded to buy someone with a strike rate like that.' Although they lost him for most of last season, Walsh recovered from an operation just in time to make it third time lucky for Leicester at Wembley, settling the play-off final against Derby by scoring twice.

If Little's team are now to confound the pundits by staying up, clearly much will depend on the admirably channelled passion of the convert, who begins a new Premiership life in his thirtieth year by taking on Newcastle's expensive central defence this afternoon. Philippe Albert, whose last serious outing involved trying to cope with Jurgen Klinsmann and Rudi Voller for Belgium in the World Cup, may find Walsh's typically English front-running something of a crash course in our culture.

Walsh is no donkey. Nor, on the other hand, is he ever going to be taken for a latter-day Frank Worthington, though one suspects that Filbert Street's favourite definition of the stylish centre -forward would have enjoyed certain aspects of playing with a man only too happy to chase all day. 'I just love running around,' says Walsh. 'I always have.' Somehow, the thrill of the chase always seemed to elude Worthington. Walsh, in his way, is nevertheless as much a totem of Little's essentially practical side as was Worthington of Jimmy Bloomfield's collection of Seventies artists.

Little, in a book* published several months before the triumphant climax to last season, said as much: 'Walshy epitomises so many things about how I want my teams to play. Certain technical abilities are missing, but the genuine appetite both to win and play well are top-notch. To us, he's a major player.' There was a time, of course, when the word 'player' could have been replaced by 'concern' and Little acknowledged the necessity to protect Walsh from his own temper when, in November 1992, after his second sending-off of the season, he deprived him of the club captaincy and told him to go up front. 'I knew he'd have some fun there. He's always played up front in five-a-sides anyway.' Presumably, given his vital statistics (6ft 2in, 13st 13lb), no one ever thought to argue.

The front was Walsh's territory in tender Lancastrian youth, but he came to admire Alan Hansen above all other idols, if not to emulate the Scot's supercool approach, and made his name with Wigan as a defender whose high promise was matched by an apparent inability to ignore provocation. His debut was unremarkable. The next match took place at Exeter on his eighteenth birthday, and he was dismissed for right-hooking an opponent who spat in his face.

'It was always the same,' he says. 'Over-reaction to other people hurting me, or being out of order in some way. All the time I've just stuck up for myself. Some of the sendings-off have been scandalous. One was for my first tackle of a match. Someone had said "I'll break your leg" and was coming in right over the top, so I protected myself - and went straight off. That was at Wigan. It was hard in the Third Division in those days, a case of sorting out the men from the boys. I accepted it. I loved the give and take. That was my game. I was classed as an old-fashioned defender. I just couldn't stand people trying to injure people.'

Bryan Hamilton, now in charge of Northern Ireland, was his manager then and took Walsh to Leicester for pounds 100,000 in 1986. They were in the top division, but not for long; Walsh, inactive due to a groin strain, sat out the closing stages of a losing battle against relegation and was to spend the next few years striving, in between suspensions, to limit damage at an impoverished, decayed club. Until Little's arrival. 'He turned the club around,' says Walsh. 'And personally I owe him a great deal. I know I'd have had to change my ways, even if I'd stayed at the back. But it's also helped that the game itself has changed. No one tries to do you any more. I've been able to get retaliation out of my system, more or less. I've calmed down a lot.'

Despite Walsh's developing partnership with the awkward-to-handle Iwan Roberts, the widespread belief is that Leicester are about to step out of their class and it might be illustrated by reference to their most recent meeting with today's opponents. This, at St James' Park in May 1993, was a game of two halves: Newcastle won the first half 6-0, Leicester drew the second 1-1. Walsh smiles and shrugs. 'They might get 14 this time. We might get seven. Who knows? But it's a new season, we'll have a big crowd behind us, and we believe we can win.'

There is an impressive resilience of spirit about Little's Leicester that may serve them well. Rather like the South African cricket team, they have a tendency to contradict notions of collapse. After their 7-1 defeat by Newcastle, they won their play-off semi-final against Portsmouth. After an earlier 7-1 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday in the Coca-Cola Cup, their League results improved. 'Everyone has bad results,' says Walsh. 'The manager's taught us that it's how quickly you make amends for them that matters.'

Little insists that the crass long-ball game with which they overcame Derby at Wembley was a matter of expediency, dictated by injuries, and the recruitment of the midfielder Mark Draper does point to a more varied style. But it remains to be seen whether Leicester can dig in at the higher level. To resurrect a phrase, they have the reputation of a yo-yo club, forever on a journey up or down. 'We have to put that right,' says Walsh, 'and it could take a few years. If we can consolidate, build and buy more quality, we can do all right. What we can't afford is to go back down again.'

The initial strategy is to see how Walsh fares in his adopted role, which pleases him. 'I'm sure I'll end my career at the back, but for the time being I'm enjoying using my experience and making the runs I know defenders don't like. Certainly, with all the extra pressures on defenders at the moment, it looks as if I've made the switch at a good time.' Other gamekeepers have turned poachers, the most startling recent example being Paul Warhurst, whose exploits at Sheffield Wednesday led to brief acquaintance with the England squad and a lucrative move to Blackburn. Compared with Warhurst, though, Walsh is made of sterner stuff and if Leicester survive against the odds their supporters will join Little in taking their hats off to him.

The People, 21 August 1994

KEV REVS UP WALSH;

NEWCASTLE LOOK FOR REPEAT RESULT OF LAST MEETING WITH LEICESTER

BYLINE: John Dillon / Steve Bates / Shaun Custis

Leicester defender Walsh got an early taste of the Toon treatment when he was on the recieving end of a 7-1 tanking at St James's Park as Newcastle romped to the Second Division championship in 1993.

It was the last time Leicester faced Newcastle and that goal feast could be why Sky TV have chosen the re-match at Filbert Street today as their first live televised Premiership game of the new season.

Walsh says: "It was the worst hammering I'd ever had. There was nothing you could say afterwards.

"They were on such a roll and the atmosphere up there was incredible.We defended badly and it seemed like there was nothing we could do about it."

That victory was one of the first major rumblings of the revolution worked by Kevin Keegan at Newcastle. They followed it up with a storming first season in the Premiership and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

Walsh says: "They'd been like a sleeping giant. The signs were all there that day they beat us 7-1. Then they went out and added Peter Beardsley to the mix and it worked perfectly. They've done it again this summer by buying big foreign names."

Newcastle's foreign signings Phillipe Albert and Marc Hottiger are both lined up to make their debuts.

The big question about Newcastle this season is: will Andy Cole repeat the form that brought him 40 goals last term?

Plenty of strikers have been one-season wonders.

Walsh says: "I played against Andy early in his career and he was a handful then. He will always get goals."

Leicester are the bookies favourites to go straight back down after winning promotion in the play-offs.

Walsh says: "We'll use that to say - right, we'll show you all. The club was badly managed for a time but Brian Little has changed things. He's only the second manager for whom I'll think - I'll win this game for you.

"And, as at Newcastle, the right people have come in to turn things around. We're not in the big-money league but we've signed Mark Draper to prove that the club does have ambition."