Next up is David Pleat, who replaced Bryan Hamilton as City manager in 1987, staying at the club for the next three seasons.

When Pleat came in he had difficulty winning the lads over. It was a tough time for him, but he did alright at first. We were down the bottom and he took us right up the table. Apart from that, those years were a struggle, so the timing of David being at the club wasn’t brilliant. He tried everything to turn things around when we lost games but a lot of his methods were bizarre.

Pleaty used to try different approaches. I remember he took the players to Henlow Grange in Bedfordshire to do yoga. We were all laughing and joking but Pleat was going mad telling us to take it seriously until, eventually, he fell asleep! He slept for ages and we just left him there, it was unbelievable.

The training sessions were bizarre too. Pleat used to walk up behind you halfway through an exercise and ask a question, talking right in your ear. I remember warming up at the start of training with Alan Paris, who we used to call ‘no-brains’, and Pleat shouts at him, “What’s a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?” Of course, Paris gets it wrong and Pleat shouts, “Useless, f***ing useless!”

Then he asked me what the capital of Sweden was. I said Oslo, the capital of Norway, and he went mad at me! He could blow a fuse at the strangest things.

Some of the training sessions seemed very effeminate. He’d make us run and skip around swinging our arms in the air. It just wasn’t the sort of thing that footballers of that era were used to, or comfortable with.

I remember a pink brush he used to have in his pocket, this luminous pink hairbrush that he combed the curly quiff at the front of his hair with. It was a small round brush and he used to put his hand in his pocket, grab the brush and start curling. He was strange in his ways.

David had a great knowledge of football and knew every player in every league. He was very well spoken too. I think he must’ve gone to Eton or something!

He was alright was Pleaty… very deep, very methodical and liked to pass and play. He was good with me and I still have a lot of respect for him. He put a lot of effort and preparation into games and saw himself as a bit of a master tactician.

His signings didn’t really help him out. The likes of Ricky Hill were good players but a lot of them didn’t work. I remember him bringing in Kevin Campbell and Paul Moran on loan who both scored goals. He worked the loan system well, but it didn’t happen for his permanent signings.

Up until Martin O’Neill came in we just couldn’t get a whole team together. We always had four or five brilliant players but were mixing and matching in other positions for years.

One funny story from the Pleat era happened during a pre-season trip to Scotland. Quite a few of us went to this club; Tony Spearing, Gary McAllister, Peter Weir, Ali Mauchlen, Jimmy Quinn and me.

On the top floor, Spearing had taken a swig of his beer and spat it out, spraying everybody down on the dance floor. This Scottish guy with tattoos came bounding up towards us. I got the nod from Jimmy Quinn and we just ran upstairs. This guy got the wrong man and smacked Peter Weir before the bouncers threw us down the stairs and into the street.

Outside, the same guy was talking to Peter Weir again and I could see him eyeing up another punch so I smacked him. He never even moved. Then he ran at me and I punched him full in his face, knocking him down. I grabbed him on the ground and thought ‘I better give him another.’

I could see Ali and Gary Mac on the other side of the street staying well away from it all. I went to punch him again and the guy moved his head at the last minute and I smacked my fist against the concrete and broke my hand. Ali decided to get involved and ran across the road and kicked the guy, injuring his foot in the process! Then there was this other lad in the middle of the street giving it all these karate moves so I just ran at him and chased him away!

Weir’s got his eye hanging out, I’ve broken my hand and Ali’s done his foot and we’ve all got training the next day! I couldn’t eat my breakfast the next morning as I was hiding my left-hand, and Peter Weir didn’t even make it down, hiding in his room!

I knew I had to get to hospital quick. During training, which was being taken by Gordon Lee, I was first to go down. I fell over and pretended I’d got my hand caught under my body. Gordon came running across, saw my hand and said, “You better get yourself to hospital quick.” Peter Weir said he’d got elbowed in training and Ali claimed he’d kicked the ground. We all got away with it and Gordon Lee and Pleat were never the wiser!

I remember getting interviewed by Mercury journalist Bill Anderson about the injury and I just told him that it happened on the training ground! It would’ve been front page news if the press had got wind of the real story… another Leicester City classic!

Pleat lost the dressing room towards the end of his time at the club and fell out with a few players, including Jimmy Quinn. He never seemed to give Jimmy a chance, despite all those headers he scored.

The end came after a run of bad results and the fans just wanted rid. I remember after one game, we were on a really bad run at the time, and I was sat in the team bath when a brick came in through the window! We went on to lose another home game 3-1 to Blackburn and there were demonstrations and the fans made it clear that they wanted Pleat and Chairman Terry Shipman out.

Overall it just didn’t happen for David. After a good spell at the start he tried to change things too much. He had a good managerial career on the whole and did well at Spurs and Luton. He’s clever, very clever and you can tell he thinks deeply about football. He talks a brilliant game, but it just didn’t work out for him at Leicester.

Next week, I’ll be focusing on the Brian Little years.

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