'A Lot Of Good Memories' - Waghorn On His Leicester Career

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'A Lot Of Good Memories' - Waghorn On His Leicester Career

Earlier this year, Club Historian John Hutchinson caught up with Martyn Waghorn for a wide-ranging conversation, covering his emergence through Sunderland’s academy and representing Leicester City.

2026-05-10T13:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

10 May, 2026

'A Lot Of Good Memories' - Waghorn On His Leicester Career

Earlier this year, Club Historian John Hutchinson caught up with Martyn Waghorn for a wide-ranging conversation, covering his emergence through Sunderland’s academy and representing Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-10T13:00+01:00

'A Lot Of Good Memories' - Waghorn On His Leicester Career

Earlier this year, Club Historian John Hutchinson caught up with Martyn Waghorn for a wide-ranging conversation, covering his emergence through Sunderland’s academy and representing Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-10T13:00+01:00

'A Lot Of Good Memories' - Waghorn On His Leicester Career

Earlier this year, Club Historian John Hutchinson caught up with Martyn Waghorn for a wide-ranging conversation, covering his emergence through Sunderland’s academy and representing Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-10T13:00+01:00

'A Lot Of Good Memories' - Waghorn On His Leicester Career

Earlier this year, Club Historian John Hutchinson caught up with Martyn Waghorn for a wide-ranging conversation, covering his emergence through Sunderland’s academy and representing Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-10T13:00+01:00

A key figure for us under Nigel Pearson, Paulo Sousa and Sven-Göran Eriksson, Waghorn looked back on his formative years at the Stadium of Light under Roy Keane, a breakout loan spell with the Foxes that earned him the Club’s Young Player of the Year award, and the pivotal moments that convinced him to make Leicester his permanent home in 2010.

Thinking back to the early stages of his football journey, Martyn, who was born in South Shields, began: “As a youngster, I was actually scouted first by Manchester United. I had the chance to train there at the Cliff and I played for United’s School of Excellence team. It was a brilliant, great experience. However, location-wise, it was just too far to go from my home in the North East. Then, I got trials for Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough, and I ended up signing for Sunderland as a seven-year-old, and trained at the old Charley Hurley Ground, in a tiny little gym space area with one pitch. That’s where my Sunderland career started.

“When I was in the youth team at Sunderland, we had a really good core of about seven or eight players who stayed together from eight or nine all the way to the first team.

“I made my first team debut (on Boxing Day 2007) when I was 17. Being a semi-fan of United, where my football journey almost started, it was incredible that my first match in the first team was against Manchester United at home.

“Roy Keane was the Sunderland manager at that time. I loved playing for him. I always remember him saying: ‘I don’t care how good you are, as long as you work hard for us’. That’s how I was brought up. The whole academy was based on really hard work and doing your job for the team. That’s why we were so successful because we all worked hard and we were all good players. I loved it there.”

Martyn’s next Premier League game was several months later, in November 2008.

He remembered: “I’d just come back from three or four months out, with a bad MCL injury, and my first game back was against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge when they chucked me straight in at the deep end. And then I went on loan to Charlton. Alan Pardew signed me on a three-month loan and I played a couple of games. My first goal was against Derby at The Valley. But then the manager left shortly afterwards because Charlton were struggling. As an 18-year-old kid at the time, it was quite difficult. A new manager came in and he brought a lot of loan players in, so I was being left out of the squad a bit. They wanted a lot of experience. Looking back now, I totally understand this. My loan was cut short and I went back to Sunderland.”

At the beginning of the next season, in August 2009, Martyn made a move on a season-long loan to Leicester City, who had just returned to the Championship under Nigel Pearson as League One champions.

“I didn’t know much about Leicester then, to be honest,” Martyn continued. “As a kid you are totally in your own bubble. I looked at Leicester’s previous year which had been hugely successful. The Manager, Nigel Pearson, had an affiliation up north and they had a really good academy with a lot of young kids coming through like Joe Mattock and Andy King. With this development of young players, Leicester was a really good fit for me.

“Nigel Pearson was incredible for me. As a young player on loan, it was great to have the support from him, Walshie (Steve Walsh) and Shakey (Craig Shakespeare). Obviously, there was also Birch (Alan Birchenall) there who was just Birch. They made me feel so welcome and part of the Club straightaway and it helped me no end to settle in.”

Other new signings for the Foxes were full-back Robbie Neilson, goalkeeper Chris Weale, midfielder Richie Wellens and later, in September, forward Paul Gallagher.

Martyn made his debut, as a substitute, in the opening match of the 09/10 season, a home fixture against Swansea City, and scored the equaliser in a 2-1 victory.

Martyn went on to make 29 starts that season, 18 substitute appearances and scored 12 goals, making him our top scorer in the league that campaign. He was also the Club’s Young Player of the Year.

At the end of the season, we finished fifth in the Championship, qualifying for the play-offs. Cardiff City beat us 1-0 in the first leg at home. We won the return leg in Cardiff 3-2 after extra-time but then lost in a penalty shootout which, Martyn said with a smile, he didn’t want to be reminded of.

At the end of the season, his loan deal ended and he returned to Sunderland but, although he didn’t know it at the time, he was soon to return to Leicester on a permanent contract.

During the close season, Pearson left to manage Hull City and was replaced by Swansea City’s manager, the former Portuguese international Paulo Sousa, who had made his name as a player with clubs such as Benfica, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan.

He said: “I had been talking about a permanent contract the previous season but then Nigel, Walshy and Shakey left to go to Hull City, so I went back to Sunderland. I had quite a good pre-season and I signed a new contract there on either a four or a five-year deal. I can’t quite remember which.

“I made a couple of appearances in the Premier League for Sunderland at the start of the (10/11) season, and I was getting ready to look for a new house back home in Sunderland. Then, with the August transfer deadline approaching, my agent rang me to tell me that Sunderland had accepted a fee and that Leicester wanted me down there that night. So I upped sticks, packed all my stuff and drove down to Leicester.

“Even though Sunderland was my home club, I was happy to go back to Leicester because of the affiliation I had with the place due to the year I’d had there previously. I was obviously disappointed that Nige wasn’t there, but I had a great connection with Matty [Fryatt], Morro (Michael Morrison), Kingy (Andy King) and Hobbsy (Jack Hobbs). I’d built up really good relationships with them and it was just a no brainer to go back.

“We had a slow start to the season. When teams come so close to being promoted, as we’d done the previous season, you’re just a little bit flat and it was difficult for our new Manager Paulo Sousa to get everyone going because we’d been so close.

“Also, Paulo’s style of play was different from Nigel’s. We had a lot of information to take on board, and this was tough.”

With City bottom of the Championship, Sousa left the Club on 1 October, 2010, following defeats at Portsmouth and at Norwich City during the previous week. Two days later he was replaced by an ex-England manager, the late Sven-Göran Eriksson.

“Sven was incredible,” Martyn continued. “He had an incredible way of making you feel brilliant. What a nice guy! He always made you feel part of the team. He was a great person to talk to and have around the place.

“Soon after Sven’s appointment, we flew to Thailand where we had a great welcome. Sven was over there. Sometimes when you get a new manager, it’s all a bit rushed, perhaps having to prepare for a game straight away, but with Sven we had four or five days just having time to get to know him with a lot of conversations and chats. It was a fantastic experience.”

That season, with the Foxes finishing 10th in the table, Martyn made 30 Championship appearances, often being used as a substitute following the on-loan arrivals of Yakubu and Darius Vassell.

Martyn continued: “At the beginning of the following season (11/12), I went on loan to Hull, where Nigel Pearson was the manager. Shakey (Craig Shakespeare) and Walshy (Steve Walsh) were also there, as were (ex -Leicester team-mates) Matty Fryatt and Hobbsy (Jack Hobbs) which was lovely. That’s what Nigel is great at, taking people that he trusts and respects along with him.

“I started off relatively well there and was selected for the England Under-21s side (against Azerbaijan, Israel and Iceland). Stuart Pearce was the manager. I’d already played for England Under-18s and Under-19s. I was very fortunate to play alongside some great players and had some great experiences. Unfortunately, when we played Iceland away (in October 2011), I tore my hamstring. I just kept getting misdiagnosed for the injury and I ended up spending four or five months out. It was very difficult to be honest.”

In November 2011, Pearson returned from Hull for his second spell as City’s Manager.

“I was recovering from my hamstring when he returned,” Martyn remembered. “I made it back into the side for the last game of the season at Leeds and I scored.”

Martyn then said that he was determined to start afresh the next season, during which he made 24 appearances, many of them as substitute. In September 2013, Martyn went on loan to Millwall.

“We had a lot of good players, like Nuge (David Nugent) and Vards (Jamie Vardy)”, Martyn explained. “Looking back, I now think: ‘Should I have been a bit more patient?’ I was a very emotional player and I just wanted to play football, so I managed to get a loan to Millwall. I had a short stint there, and then, in January, I went on loan to Wigan Athletic, signing permanently for them before the end of the season (in April 2014).

“Unfortunately, that was my time up at Leicester. I had a great conversation with Nigel, who told me my contract wouldn’t be renewed. He wished me all the best and told me to go out there and play.

“I wish things had ended differently. Leicester got promoted that year, but I was fortunate to play alongside some really good players there, and I have a lot of good memories.”

In June 2015, Martyn moved from Wigan to Rangers. In his first season at Ibrox, the ‘Gers won the Scottish second-tier title, and he was the Championship’s top scorer despite missing several weeks with a PCL injury. He was Rangers’ Player of the Year, was in the PFA Scottish Championship Team of the Year and played in the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park against Hibernian.

After a season in the Scottish Premiership, Martyn moved to Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich Town for the 17/18 season, scoring 16 goals for them in the Championship and then, in August 2018, he signed for Derby County’s new manager, Frank Lampard.

He added: “At the end of the season, we lost the Championship Play-Off Final and Frank went back to Chelsea. The next manager, Philip Cocu (who’d won 100 caps for the Netherlands), who is a really nice guy, had a lot of difficult situations and when he left, in November 2020, Wayne Rooney took over.

“He’d signed as a player. He’s an incredible footballer! It’s really hard to describe just how good he was when you see him every day. He then became manager and was really good at motivating players. He had a difficult year with the stuff that was happening externally. He was incredible at protecting the team and taking the brunt of it. Not many people saw that side of him. He was class and we stayed up on the last day of the season, when I scored a couple of goals against Sheffield Wednesday, who went down instead of us.”

Martyn spent the next two seasons (21/22 and 22/23) at Coventry City, which included a loan spell at Huddersfield Town and then, for 23/24, he returned to Derby, who were then in League One.

He added: “I started a season really well but then had a difficult year with injuries, probably because I hadn’t had a proper full pre-season. I ended up tearing my hamstring two days before the last day of the season, but Derby got promoted which was the main goal.

“That was my last full season, although after surgery, I did have a couple of months at Northampton Town. However, I’d played in the Premier League, represented my country, had promotions, won trophies, scored a lot of goals, and played over 500 games. It was the right time to announce my retirement, which I did, last February.”

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