It’s been an eventful week for Leicester City with Nigel Pearson leaving the club to take charge at Hull. I was really disappointed to hear the news as Nigel has done a cracking job over the past two seasons, restoring much needed respect to the club.

I’d like to take this opportunity to state that contrary to what’s been reported in some sections of the media, I am not following Nigel to Hull as his assistant! That’s my namesake, Steve Walsh senior, the same man that has been working with Nigel at Leicester.

Confused followers on my Twitter group have been asking why I left and a few have tried to persuade me to apply for the job! As much as I’d love to manage Leicester City, I won’t be throwing my hat into the ring this time. I’m backing current caretaker boss Chris Powell to be given the job on a permanent basis, as you may have seen during my interview with Natalie Jackson from BBC East Midlands Today this week.

From an uncertain present it’s back to the glorious past, and the second part of my memories of Martin O’Neill’s reign at the club. I’ve enlisted the views of my former team-mate, Muzzy Izzet, who was a major star under O’Neill. We talked through our experiences of playing under Martin starting with the story of how Muzzy joined the club.

Muzzy:
I first heard of Martin’s interest playing for Chelsea’s reserves. He used to come along to our matches in Kingstonian quite regularly as he was Wycombe manager and lived locally. Chelsea had a big squad with a lot of established players like David Lee, David Rocastle and Nigel Spackman all playing reserve team football. I think Martin was there looking at them, maybe trying to get them on loan at Wycombe.

When he went to Norwich and Leicester he still came to the reserve games. I was on the brink of getting into the Chelsea first team but I’d been there since the age of 13 and needed something new.

I went to see the manager, Glenn Hoddle, and said, “Look, what’s the situation? It doesn’t look like I’m really going anywhere.” He asked what I was looking for and I said I’d like to get out on loan. That night I had a reserve game and the next day I was going on loan to Leicester. Martin had watched me that night and spoken to Hoddle.

Little did I know that Micky Adams, manager of Fulham at the time, also wanted me. I found out years later when Micky was at Leicester that he was actually there on the same night as Martin and had tried to sign me. On my first day at Leicester, Martin and the players seemed nice enough, but I was just this young kid and nobody knew who I was. That weekend we had Sheffield United which was a big, big game as the lads were struggling and Martin was under a bit of pressure.

We were losing two nil and I came on as sub. Nobody had heard of me and the crowd weren’t happy. They wanted new players to come in and improve the club and saw this relatively unknown player get straight into the first team. We lost the game 2-0 and Martin famously went outside and spoke to disgruntled supporters afterwards.

Walshy:
I remember that very well and it’s something I referred to in last week’s blog. Martin stood up to be counted that night and in the coming weeks the players did the same with those crucial 1-0 away wins to Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace.

Muzzy:
Yeah, my first start was against Charlton. Martin was on a different level to what I’d experienced with other managers. With Hoddle I wasn’t an established first-team player and he always seemed unapproachable. Martin had that human element where you could go and speak to him, but Hoddle was this big name, this big persona.

Martin was more down to earth and I got on really well with him. I instantly wanted to play for him and he created this great team spirit thanks to the players and characters he brought in, players that hadn’t really achieved what they’d set out to achieve earlier in their career. I was one and so was Neil Lennon and the older players were still important and still wanted to achieve, so we had a good blend. He drew us together and we just seemed to click.

Walshy:
Muzzy’s absolutely spot on there, Martin created an amazing team spirit and just had this knack of getting the best out of players and making you want to go that extra mile for him.

We all got stuck in together and even though there were big characters in that team, there were no prima donnas and Martin wouldn’t tolerate that; he’d get rid straight away. He was one of the only men who could control Stan Collymore and I think Stan knew he couldn’t get out of line with Martin. He was welcomed and made to feel like one of the lads, but Stan still knew that he had to work hard for the team and Martin helped bring the best out of him.

Muzzy:
Wal’s right, the team spirit was fantastic but people don’t give Martin enough credit for his tactics. They seem to think he blags his way through and it’s just about team spirit. It’s not. I remember games when we were right up against it and he’s changed things tactically at half-time and we’ve come out and won, so tactically he’s very good. He knew how to get the best out of players and blend them into a team.

Walshy:
Absolutely Muzz, he was spot on tactically and I think Martin or Harry Redknapp would be great as the next England manager. Martin would get his tactics right in the big games, when it mattered. He looked at each game and each player and put a lot of thought into our opponents. It was mind games with him… like a game of chess.

An example is when he used Pontus Kaamark to man-mark Juninho in the 1997 League Cup Final. I think if he hadn’t done that than the little Brazilian would’ve been a problem for us. That was a tactical masterstroke.

The build up to the big games like that League Cup final was brilliant and Martin tried to keep things relaxed. We went down to the Burnham Beaches hotel and at times we trained on the bit of garden outside the front. We played a young versus old five-a-side the day before the final to keep the preparation the same. It was pretty non-league stuff really when you look at it, but it worked for us.

Muzzy:
Martin was famed for his behaviour on the touchline during games, but he was the complete opposite in training. He was calm and would come out and watch and not say too much during the week. It was like the calm before the storm.

On matchday you could see him getting anxious and he’d come in and do the team talk to fire us up and probably let off a bit of steam too. At half-time he could shout if he needed to or be calm. Sometimes he’d shout and then realise he’d maybe said the wrong thing. I think he was a one off in that sense. Even when he was going mad he would go away, calm down, take a couple of minutes’ time out and come back in and say, “Right, this is what we’ve got to do to sort it out.”

Walshy:
Under Martin, I remember thinking that if I went into management I’d definitely adopt some of his characteristics. There were certain things he did that rubbed off on you. Of course, you’d do it your own way and take pieces from each manager, but there was a hell of a lot to take from Martin.

Occasionally we didn’t see eye to eye and a lot of that was due to me protecting the lads when they’d been misbehaving. I was like the mediator between the manager and the players and I used to take the blame a lot. To be fair there were times when I’d still be out and we should’ve been back at the hotel and Martin would be like, “You should know better Walshy.”

One of the funniest stories comes from a trip to Malahide in Ireland when we met one of Martin’s great friends, Alan Clancy. We went out drinking at this local pub called The Grove and it went mad. I can remember Matt Elliott doing the riverdance at the bar!

We’d missed our curfew and I remember coming back to the hotel with a couple of the other lads and seeing O’Neill and Robertson sat in reception. We got the taxi to drive to the back of the hotel, climbed through a window and crawled along the floor behind their sofa. It was as if we were avoiding a sniper and I suppose we were in a way… it would’ve definitely been a verbal attack! Anyway we managed to crawl right behind them and back into our rooms without getting caught!

Despite moments like that, there was a great deal of respect and trust between me and Martin. He knew I’d had so many injuries and just wanted me to keep on playing for as long as I could. There were many times when I was struggling but ended up going out there because I wanted to and he needed me to play. Martin always maintained that bit of distance between himself and the players, but as Muzzy said earlier he was always approachable.

Muzzy:
Yeah, you’ve got to have that respect and those boundaries, and I think Martin made sure it was like that. I don’t think he wanted to be friends with the players although he was great with all of us.

Martin was definitely the best I worked under. He obviously saw something in me and thought I was good enough to be a first team player. I needed someone at that time to get more out of me and he knew how to do it. I’ll always be grateful that he took a chance on me.

Walshy:
Cheers Muzz, I appreciate your thoughts on the great man.

Next week, I’ll be flying solo again and looking at the car crash management of Peter Taylor. The man who forced me out of the club I loved and squandered millions of pounds on players who just weren’t up to it.

Steve Walsh Blog in association with:

For Steve’s views on other Leicester City managers follow the links below…

Bryan Hamilton

David Pleat

Brian Little

Mark McGhee

Martin O’Neill (Part 1)