If Leicester City seem nerveless as they try to complete one of the most sensational triumphs in football history, it is because they know what it is like to be in positions that are really scary. Not just last year, when Leicester looked doomed until an amazing late escape from relegation but, for Kasper Schmeichel, 10 years ago, when he was on loan at Bury and went into the last day of the season, away at Notts County, in danger of being demoted from League Two.
“That would have meant Bury going into non-league and that would have been catastrophic,” recalls the goalkeeper. “Everything was on the line: people’s families, livelihoods, everything. That was proper pressure. This? This is what you play for.”
A last-minute goal in that 2006 nail-biter meant Bury and Notts County drew 2-2 and condemned Oxford United to relegation instead. Schmeichel reckons he could not have had his current highs without such formative experiences. As a youngster he demanded a series of loan moves away from Manchester City, whom he joined at 16. He was 19 when he was plunged into Bury’s survival fight in the first of two spells at that club. He also enjoyed stints away at Darlington, Falkirk, Coventry and Cardiff.
“The loan spells were great, I always pushed for them,” he says. “I was doing, in my eyes, nothing at Manchester City. You can train all day but it comes down to match situations when you go out on loan to lower league clubs.
“It is not the glitz and glamour that football is portrayed as, there is not the amount of money that is at the top level, so people’s livelihoods are on the line, people’s mortgages, people’s families, so you are out there making decisions that can affect that. Having that type of pressure on you, that is what you need, especially as a goalkeeper because everything comes down to decision-making with goalkeepers. For me it was vital to go out, get that experience and feel that type of pressure.”
Schmeichel, 29, left City permanently in 2009, moving to Notts County and then Leeds United before signing for Leicester in 2011. Alongside players such as Wes Morgan, Jamie Vardy, Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez, he was part of the Leicester team that won the Championship two years ago. That title-winning experience is serving them well in the top flight this season. “You go into every game, you need points, the level is different but the mentality is still the same,” says Schmeichel.
That helped forge a powerful team spirit at Leicester and Schmeichel believes that Claudio Ranieri has done well not to make drastic alterations since replacing Nigel Pearson as manager last summer. The Italian brought only two coaches with him, retaining the existing staff and players. “The best compliment I can pay is that he resisted the urge to change everything,” says Schmeichel. “That is something a lot of managers want to do. They bring their own people and do everything their own way.
“He came in the first week, he introduced himself and then didn’t say anything the following week because he just watched us, how we work, and recognised that he had a squad that worked well with each other, got on really well, played well and trained hard. He just tweaked things here and there, tactical things like going to the 4-4-2 [from the 3-5-2 formation that Pearson introduced late last season]. As a player you appreciate a manager who can maybe compromise a bit in his own ways for the good of the team.”
Leicester’s defence has gradually tightened under Ranieri. The team that beat Sunderland 4-2 on the opening day of the season is meaner than the one that will try to bolster its title challenge and deepen Sam Allardyce’s relegation fears at the Stadium of Light on Sunday. Schmeichel has become accustomed to keeping clean sheets. “It comes down to relationships and communication that you have. For me the important thing is I have four honest lads in front of me who give their everything. After the game they are crawling off the pitch because they have been through so many battles. As a keeper it is an absolute pleasure to play behind. Nobody is trying anything extravagant, it is simple defending and it comes down to honest hard work.”
Victory on Sunday would bring Schmeichel and Leicester closer to the ultimate reward for those labours.
