MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE LEICESTER CITY TEAM

 

In this blog I am continuing with choosing my favourite all time Leicester City team and I will be choosing the wide men or wingers as they used to be known.

The team I am choosing is in a 4-4-2 formation but unfortunately the role of the wide man has changed dramatically over the years.

When I first started going to Filbert Street many years ago, the first winger I can recall is Howard Riley. But to be honest I remember the rosette sellers and the wooden rattles and looking forward to a game of cards with my Dad at half time sitting in the double decker stand more than I can remember the football. I do know that every time Riley had the ball there would be a resounding buzz in the stands! And a wave of excitement and expectation seemed to fill the ground.

As I got older and appreciated football more I could see what all the excitement was about. There was no finer sight than watching a winger take the ball down the touchline turning a defender inside out and delivering a cross into the box that hopefully would result in a goal! And at City we had two of the finest in the early 1960’s in Jackie Sinclair and Mike Stringfellow.

Playing in a forward line that read Sinclair, Goodfellow, Dougan, Gibson, Stringfellow excitement was the order of the day at Filbert Street and Sinclair and Stringfellow would tear many defences apart before setting up the ‘Doog’ and they were also prolific goal scorers themselves. Sinclair scored 53 times from 113 appearances and the ‘mighty String’ scored 97 goals from well over 300 appearances.

So a good introduction to the wide men and the next wingers who would light up Filbert Street for me were John Farrington and Lenny Glover.

Farrington arrived from Wolves for a modest £30,000 and Glover arrived from Charlton for an £80,000 fee. I remember John Farrington as a speedy winger with a pin pointing cross! And Lenny Glover as a tricky winger, who with the drop of his shoulder would leave a defender on his backside.

Glover would become a cult legend at Leicester and he went on to become part of the Bloomfield era that was littered with star names and eventually the man who used to play on the opposite wing to Glover in that era also became an iconic figure whose name still reverberates around The King Power Stadium today - Keith Weller.

Weller was bought from Chelsea for £100,000 and he treated City supporters to many displays of brilliance with the ball, and in a cup tie v Norwich where he will be remembered for wearing white tights in the game. Weller was unique and today there are still calls for a statue to be placed at The King Power Stadium to remember the great man.

In the early 1980’s Steve Lynex took up the mantle of the next winger that exited the Filbert Street faithful and he would play a big part in helping Gary Lineker adding to his total of goals scored for Leicester.

Gary Mills was another player who could play on the wing or inside and he was a cultured footballer!

As out and out wingers go Lee Phillpott and Tommy Wright did a job for City but never exceeded the excitement of their predecessors neither did Julian Joachim or Levi Porter who were both destined to be the next great wingers at Leicester, but it never really happened for them. For me the next player that would excite the crowd  as a winger was Steve Guppy who gave many a stirring performance in the O’Neill era and Max Gradel looked as though he was going to be another one that would go down as a great winger, but his promise never showed and he moved on to Leeds.

A difficult decision to make picking wide men because of the changing role that is now expected of them, gone are the days of the winger hugging the touchline and taking on defenders. Today they are expected to defend as well as attack and you will see full backs taking on the role of the player running down the wing.

I miss the days of wingers and here at Leicester we had some good ones, I miss the excitement of a marauding winger taking on players with flair and skill. Will Ben Marshall and Anthony Knockaert live up to their expectation – I hope so. In the meantime those of us, who were lucky enough to see the likes of Sinclair, Stringfellow, Glover and Weller, rejoice! We may never see the like of them again.

The choices I have made for the two to take their place in my all-time greatest team are Keith Weller who played a total of 295 appearances for City (plus two as substitute) and scored a total of 43 goals. Weller just had to make it as on his day he was one of the most exiting players I have ever seen and it was a sad loss when he passed away a few years ago. His memory lives on at Leicester with a lounge at the King Power Stadium named after him. A fitting tribute to another Leicester legend

On the opposite flank it just has to be Lenny Glover. I can remember many happy times standing on the kop at Filbert Street watching Lenny tear opposition defences apart, and the kop-ites singing his praises. Happy days!

So the team so far looks like this:

Shilton

Whitworth   Walsh   Cross   Nish

        Weller                                                                                    Glover

Until the next time -- Leicester till I die