At 29-years-old and with plenty of football league experience under his belt, former Manchester United trainee, Richie Wellens, is ready for a return to the big time, and he’s chosen to take that journey with Leicester City.

Richie joined The Foxes during pre-season, having spent a successful couple of years with fellow Championship side, Doncaster Rovers, earning a reputation as one of the finest midfielders in the division.

Wellens has already made quite an impact on the City faithful with energetic, assured and classy displays. The midfielder also impressed during spells with Blackpool and Oldham and promises to bring a creative spark to the City midfield that’s arguably been missing since Muzzy Izzet left the club.

His driven determination to succeed is as conspicuous as his burning ambition to play Premier League football and the great news for Foxes fans is that he wants to reach that goal with Leicester City.

Jon Reeves: So Richie, the team has enjoyed a pretty good start to the season. How well do you think you’ve settled into the club?
Richie Wellens: So far it’s been ok, but I know that I can still improve. It’s difficult to assess as the table hasn’t really taken shape yet. In the next five or six games it will and hopefully then we can stay in the top six.

JR: What attracted you to the club?
RW: It’s a big club, obviously. In the Coca-Cola Championship there are a lot of big clubs but Leicester have a good stadium and get good crowds. There were another couple of offers but they were just a little too far away from me as I still live in Manchester. I just looked at Leicester as a big club, a club on a high and I hoped we could carry on that winning mentality this season.

JR: What would constitute a good season for Leicester City this year?
RW: I think whenever you get promoted, first and foremost you’ve got to make sure you stay in the league and for clubs like Peterborough and Scunthorpe that’s the main aim. But, I think a club like Leicester have got to be looking at getting into the play-offs.

JR: You started your career coming through the ranks at Manchester United. Tell us a bit about that experience…
RW: It was great, but it was just unfortunate that at the time they had the best midfield they’ve probably ever had, with the likes of Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and David Beckham, so it was always going to be difficult for me to break through. When I had about 18 months left on my contract I took the decision to leave United and sign for Blackpool.

JR: Was it hard to leave the club or did you just get to the point that you were desperate to play first team football?
RW: It was a tough decision as you’re used to going in and training with some of the best players in the world and obviously the facilities around you are first class, but when you get to a Saturday morning and you’re not playing, just watching it every week, it gets frustrating. You train all week to play a game on a Saturday and that’s all I wanted to do.

JR: Was it a bit of a culture shock to leave United and sign for Blackpool?
RW: When I went to Blackpool I had to get stronger. At United we had the ball a lot of the time and it was quite easy as we beat most teams. Going to Blackpool, who were struggling at the bottom of the league, was a bit of a culture shock but I think it was character building.

JR: Are you still in touch with any of the lads you played with at United?
RW: I grew up with Wes Brown and he’s still a good friend of mine and I know John O’Shea quite well and we keep in touch.

JR: Which spell of your career have you enjoyed the most so far?
RW: I’m hoping the spell I’ll enjoy the most is my time with Leicester. I want to get them to the Premier League and be part of a successful team here. Playing for Doncaster was also good for me. We played some great football and were successful as well. The highlight of my career so far is probably winning the play-off final with Doncaster at Wembley.

JR: Have you been impressed by the manager since you’ve joined the club?
RW: Obviously I’d heard of his reputation before. He’s had a few good jobs at Newcastle, Southampton and West Brom and I’d heard that he was a good coach. I’ve been very impressed by him. He’s very specific in what he wants, he gets his point across well and the lads listen to him. It’s important with any manager that first and foremost the players respect you and I think every player at this club respects the manager.

JR: Is the club bigger than you thought it would be?
RW: It’s too early to say, but I’m looking forward to seeing what the atmosphere for local derbies against Forest and Derby will be like.

JR: Do you think playing outside of the top flight over the years has made you hungrier to play in the Premier League?
RW: It has, especially at this stage of my career. There are a few players here that have played in the Premier League and have that ambition to play there again. I’ve just turned 29 so I’d like to think I can have a couple of seasons in the Premier League and if I got that opportunity then I’d snap someone’s hands off. I’m just going to work as hard as I can to get us there.

JR: Have you had any offers from Premier League clubs in the past?
RW: To be honest, Wolves and Birmingham were interested this summer. I spoke with both clubs and they both said that they wanted to get players with Premier League experience in first, which is understandable, and that if I was prepared to wait then something might happen. But, to be honest I didn’t want to let this Leicester thing go and wait for Wolves or Birmingham to come off, so I thought I’d take the chance here and hopefully we’ll get into the Premier League ourselves.

JR: The squad seems to have good strength in depth and a nice blend of youth and experience…
RW: We’ve got a lot of good players here. Obviously we’ve got a lot of experienced players like Matt Oakley, Steve Howard and Wayne Brown who have already won promotion from this league, so their experience will be valuable, especially to the young lads. We’ve got good players, we’ve got strong players and I’m sure we’ll be ok.

We’ve got good strength in depth and a good number of strikers here now. I think we’ve got three or four really experienced lads, the young lads coming through are the energy of the team and obviously five or six players from the ages of 25 to 31, which are good ages. The more players we’ve got the stronger we are and we’ve got good competition for places.

JR: Have you set yourself a goal target for this season?
RW: Not really. At the start of the season we’re playing 4-4-2 and I’m playing a little bit deeper because all of the other midfielders are quite attacking. I’d happily not score a goal all season as long as we get promoted.

JR: Who was your football hero when you were growing up?
RW: The 1990 World Cup was when I really started getting into football and Paul Gascoigne and probably Diego Maradona were the best players at that time. Until I went to United I didn’t really realise how good Roy Keane was. People talk about how good he was at tackling and what a hard man he was but in terms of a footballer, well, he was fantastic.

JR: Who’s the best player you’ve ever played with or against?
RW: It was probably Paul Scholes in training. You just could not get near him. He used to pass people the ball in a way that he’d make sure you’d pass it back to him. He was probably the best player at United at that time.

JR: What’s your main ambition for the next few years of your career?
RW: Hopefully next year we can play in the Premier League but if we can get to the Play-Offs this year it will be a great achievement. I think every season all you look to do is improve on the last season. Last season was very successful especially at home, as we only lost once at the Walkers in the league and if we can do that again we’ll be there or thereabouts.

Words by Jon Reeves