For the first of my six week series on the half a dozen managers I played under at Leicester City, I’ll be looking at the man who brought me to the club, Bryan Hamilton.

It was Bryan’s predecessor Gordon Milne that initially wanted me at Leicester. Milney spotted me playing for Wigan in the Manx Cup over in the Isle of Man and enquired about me, but then I broke my leg so it didn’t happen. When Bryan Hamilton went from Wigan to Leicester he wanted to bring me with him. Milney was still at the club and as they both wanted me it made it pretty definite that I would be coming down and signing.

All of the dealings in terms of the contract were with Gordon Milne. I sat in his office and we thrashed out a contract. He just kept throwing a piece of paper over his head and would then get another one and write another figure down. They wouldn’t let me have 24 hours to think about it because they were that desperate to sign me. I rushed into a weak four-year contract to be honest, but I wasn’t bothered about the contract, I was just so keen to play in the First Division. It was a great opportunity for me.

It was a big upheaval to leave my family up north. I’d bought a house and done it all up whilst I was injured but I didn’t even live in it for one day as I was on the move to Leicester.

I knew what Bryan was about. He was more of an old school style of manager. He could be very vocal and threw the odd tea cup, but in training we had a good laugh and some fun and games.

He’d run you if you did anything wrong. A classic was after I’d just signed. We went on tour to Germany and Sweden and the players went out for the night. Bryan gave us a deadline of when we had to be back in our rooms but we ended up sneaking in much later than that. We all went to bed and he came around at about six in the morning with this pan and a big spoon and started banging it, waking everyone up. He then took us running for about two hours.

Bryan was a little bit fiery at times. If he didn’t like you, he’d make it hard for you. It was the old school kind of punishment when he’d run you or make you train with the youngsters.

He was superstitious too. I remember after games he used to say to us, “Look in that mirror and if you think you’ve done all right you can get into the bath.” I don’t think it went down too well with the lads.

It was difficult for him to bond with the players that were already at the club. There was a bit of a clique and he didn’t really fit in and that was his downfall really.

We toured a lot under Bryan and I remember we went to Saudi Arabia for a one off game. We flew in, played the next day and then flew out so it was a hell of a trip just for that, but there was obviously some money in it for the club. I remember Ian Wilson and Ali Mauchlen had this big meeting at the top floor of one of the hotel rooms. Those two didn’t see eye to eye and Ali was close to throwing him out the window!

Bryan ruffled a few feathers during his time at the club. I think the big thing for me when I first signed was that I was pretty much there to take John O’Neill’s place. He was probably at the stage where he was coming to the end and he didn’t like me coming in, there’s no doubt about that. Bryan made his stance that when I was fit, I’d be playing. I took O’Neill’s place really and that’s why there was a bit of ill feeling between us. Even though we got on ok you could sense the rivalry.

After a great start to that first season with Bryan, I tore my groin after about 17 games and missed the rest of the season, watching us go down, which was hard to take.

We had some good times at Wigan and obviously he brought me down to Leicester so I’ve got a lot to thank him for. He’s always been good with me, there’s no doubt about that, and I appreciate him for that. He took me to Norwich as well when they were struggling, but I think he found out that I was more or less finished.

With Wigan we won the Freight Rover Final together and that was great. He made a good profit for the club too as they sold the likes of Mike Newell, Tony Kelly, Warren Aspinall and me for a decent return.

When I was out injured after breaking my leg, Bryan tried to hold me back. I was dead keen to get back and used to play head tennis wearing the plaster cast! It’s unbelievable the things you do when you’re so keen to get back playing. He used to come and find me and give me a right rollicking!

Tactically he liked to try and play football. He was a midfield player himself and used to like the five-a-sides and a passing game. Bryan never seemed to quite hit the heights and get that success at club level, although he did alright managing Northern Ireland.

Overall, during his time with City, Bryan did his best under tough circumstances. At the time things needed changing. He could’ve just stuck with the old school but he understood that he needed to freshen things up and he got a bit of flack for that. He never really got the success that he needed after making the changes, though, which made it a lot harder for him.

Next week, I’ll be looking back on David Pleat’s tenure at the club.

Steve Walsh Blog in association with: