Although eventually and justifiably regarded as one of the World’s foremost strikers, Gary made a rather stumbling start to his first-team career with Leicester City, who initially struggled to harness the youngster’s remarkable pace to a coherent tactical role. Indeed, Gary, was quite often played wide in his early days, until his alert goal-poaching habit…
Category: foxes a to z
Foxes A to Z, Davie Gibson, tricky ball player, Scottish international with sparkling influence
One of the very finest ball players to have graced Filbert Street since the war, Davie had still to complete his National Service when Matt Gillies paid Hibernian £25.000 for his signature, but as soon as he turned full-time to Leicester City’s cause, he forged an unforgettable early partnership with Mike Stringfellow on the left…
Foxes A to Z, Keith Weller, bright talent with heroic influence
A marvellously talented, sometimes temperamental individualist who lent £100.000 worth of forceful right-flank panache to Jimmy Bloomfield’s elegant teams of the early 70’s, Keith could usually be relied up on to deliver a tellingly spectacular contribution to the most mundane of games. Leicester City fans were treated to regular displays of both his midfield and…
Foxes A to Z, Alan Woollett, loyalty above everything, a true servant and hero
All to often in his early days the scapegoat of an impatient City crowd, Alan was a tenacious central defender and a resilient character, belying his almost diffident appearance with a steely determination both in tackling opponents and in building a more amicable rapport with his vociferous critics. A single off color game, albeit in…
Foxes A to Z, Allan Clarke, English record transfers fee coming in and going out, Fulham, Leicester City and Leeds United
An instructive goalscorer whose transfers to and from Leicester City both broke the existing British record (at £150,000 and £165,000), Allan began his Filbert Street year as a tangible symbol of the club’s ambition, soon integrated himself with the fans with hat-trick (against Manchester City) among early goal flow, but increasingly came to look something…
Foxes A to Z, John O’Neill, from Laughborough college to the World Cup, a Leicester City journey
John O’Neill was still a Loughborough undergraduate, playing for Leicester City on a non-contract basis while completing his economics studies, when Jock Wallace gave him an unexpected first-team nod for the opening game of 1978-79 at Turf Moor. The gamble soon paid off, for John quickly developed into a cool, polished central defender. Already capped…
Foxes A to Z, Ian Wilson, from the Scottish Highland to Leicester City, later a double winning hero!
Blending constructive and combative play in die middle of the park. Ian caught Jock Wallace’s eye in Highland League football, and arrived for a £30,000 fee, which he repaid many times over with his influential prompting and playmaking skills. A key member of both Wallace’s and Gordon Milne’s promotion sides, Ian impressed most in the…
Foxes A to Z, Don Revie, Leicester City ws his base for a sensational life in football
Through the controversies of his management career seem to have set the tone of posterity’s overly harsh judgement on him, Don was no stranger to acrimony even in his early days at Leicester. A teenage signing from City’s short lived North East nursery club, who was taken under Sep Smith’s wing and thought the basics…
Foxes A to Z, Muzzy Izzet, World Cup bronze medalist and Leicester legend
Unblooded by Chelsea, and utterly unknown elsewhere at the time Martin O’Neill made him a deadline day loanee, midfielder Muzzy Izzet took next to no time to make his mark as City’s promotion drive took off sleeply following the nadir of his debut day defeat (the infamous occasion when MON was almost prematurely booed out…
Foxes A to Z, Len Glover, The best never capped winger in England
A series of injuries marred both the beginning and the end of Lenny’s City career, but in the interim seasons his left-wing skills and pace bemused many an opposing full-back, and it was a genuine tribute to both his ability and personality that he became such a firm favorite of the usually highly critical popular…
