Schmeichel Meets Shilton, Part Three: Leicester’s Goalkeeping Heritage & Shot-Stopper Rivalries
After discussing the demands of the position and how kit and training facilities have developed over the past six decades, Kasper Schmeichel and Peter Shilton next talk about the goalkeeping stars that have played for Leicester.
The duo – both City legends themselves – also converse about the late, great Gordon Banks, unlikely scouting duties and goalkeeping rivalries via a video call with LCFC TV's Dan Bates.
On City’s rich goalkeeping heritage
Kasper Schmeichel said: “As if I didn’t know enough from my own knowledge and Tim Flowers, having him as a coach for many years at Man City, he talked a lot about Leicester. Leicester was something I knew a lot about and obviously, I know with yourself, Peter, with Gordon Banks, I knew the history of that. Also, when you come into the training ground, one of the first pictures in there is a picture of Peter and Gordon. So, if you were in doubt beforehand of what this position means at a club like Leicester, it’s one of the first things you see. My goalkeeper coach for Denmark – a record holder back in Denmark for most appearances in the league with 860 – he was mesmerised by this picture when he saw it and he wanted his picture taken with this picture. I think, very much, Leicester has been lucky in having a great goalkeeping tradition.”
Peter Shilton said: “Once you get a standard, the Club always tends to try and look at that position and try and make sure that they’ve got somebody strong. When I started out, at the age of 10 I was training at Leicester on the car park outside Filbert Street a couple of nights a week, I saw they had a great team in those days – one of the best Leicester teams that we’ve ever had. I obviously used to watch Gordon train, but I was training with a coach called George Dewis and he actually trained Gary Lineker quite a bit. Gary told me George was brilliant as a coach because he was actually a centre-forward, but he always used to keep it very simple. He used to say to Gary: ‘Keep it low, keep your eye on the ball, make sure you hit the target and try and wait for the ‘keeper to move, especially on one against ones’. They were just basic things. With me, it was catch the ball at the highest point. I was like a little rubber ball, I was getting up and down and he improved me physically as well because if the ball went past me, I’d have to run and fetch it and bring it back. As a youngster, we did little weights and stuff – not heavy weights, but they built me up physically as well. Of course, once I joined Leicester when I was 15, I remember I actually signed for Leicester as a 15-year-old, an apprentice and as soon as I signed, they whipped me outside, put a goalkeeper shirt on because I had a collar and tie on and brought Gordon over and we had that famous picture together.”
On training with Gordon Banks
Peter Shilton said: “We trained a bit together. We didn’t train a lot because I was with the youth team to start with, and then I got in the reserves quite quickly and we trained a bit together, but it wasn’t quite the sort of training… it was more shooting and that type of thing, and crossing. It was great, we always got on well together and obviously I was a young lad and Gordon was a World Cup winner, wasn’t he? I just valued the chance to be with him and train with him. My big chance came actually when I was an apprentice and Gordon was away playing for England. I made my debut at 16 against Everton and we won 3-0. I played another three or four games before I was 17 when I signed professional. I did well. I played for England schoolboys and there was a few clubs sniffing, and of course, this situation arose. From my point of view, I was always proud to play for Leicester because that’s the Club that I’ve always supported, my team over the years.”
Kasper Schmeichel said: “That must be an unbelievable feeling, to come through at a club and progress from the youth team right up into the first team, and also when you’ve been a supporter of the Club. That must be unbelievable.”
On being a sweeper ‘keeper
Peter Shilton said: “While I was at Leicester, we had this manager called Jimmy Bloomfield. He was a great footballing man, ex-West Ham, and I remember, actually, I asked him: ‘Why can’t a goalkeeper be a sweeper?’. Because in those days, defences used to push up to the halfway line, and he said: ‘Well, if you feel you want to, Peter, give it a go’. So, when we were attacking and we were pushed on the halfway line, I used to be halfway in our half thinking any long ball over the top, which there was in those days, I would be able to sweep. The pressure was so much because there were so many long balls, you think for every 10, you only have to make one mistake and you’re in no man’s land. It’s a little bit like using your feet with the ball. I thought for every nine good ones, the one bad one you make, you’re going to slaughtered, you know?”
On taking up scouting duties
Peter Shilton said: “I asked to go and watch a goalkeeper called Mark Wallington and I said: ‘Go and buy him for £30,000 from Walsall’, and me and Wally trained for 18 months – a little bit like Gordon and myself. Then, he was ready for the first team, and obviously played 10 years at Leicester, Wally, a terrific goalkeeper. I moved to Stoke, although a lot of people thought I took over from Gordon at Stoke. He’d already retired for 18 months and I took over from a goalkeeper called John Farmer. It was ironic that I actually went to Stoke – the same club as Gordon. I often like to think that Gordon had a bit of something to do with them paying quite a big fee in those days. It was strange, also, that Leicester had got Mark as a great replacement. I’ll never forget it, at Bristol Rovers, and Jimmy Bloomfield said: ‘I don’t want anybody to know, we’re not putting you in the Main Stand, we’ve got you a ticket. I want you to put a hat on and a scarf and I want you to go and tell me what you think of him’. They lost 2-1, Walsall, and Wally was a little bit… he was a big lad anyway, but he was slightly overweight, I felt. He had a blinder that night – positional play and all that, and reflexes, you name it. I went back and I said: ‘How much do they want for him?’. They said: ‘£30,000’. I said: ‘Just buy him’. And he did.”
On the importance of squad jokers
Peter Shilton said: “Wally was great because I was quite intense. I was concentrated when I was training. I wasn’t serious, I’d have a laugh and a giggle, but Wally just was so funny at times. He’d come out with just a one-liner.”
Kapser Schmeichel said: “They’re so important, those people for squads, and particularly when you’re working in small groups of goalkeepers. Having someone who can release the tension or just say something funny, it’s such an important thing. We’ve got a great team at the moment, honestly. Every single day is a joy to train with the lads. Wardy (Danny Ward), Eldin [Jakupović] and all the young boys, we have a great time. I think some of the videos that I’ve shown on Instagram, you can tell that we’re having a good laugh. That’s always been important as well, I feel. It might be yourself playing on a Saturday, but all the work during the week, they help you, and they also always deserve massive credit for any success you have. All the way during the week, they’re supporting you, they’re helping you. You’re helping them as well, but it’s a difficult position because there’s only one of us that can play. There’s always going to be competition, but it never turns into anything where you wish anyone else ill. Everyone’s always been so positive. I think it’s so important to be able to do that.”
On goalkeeping rivalries
Peter Shilton said: “Me and Ray Clemence, we had this rivalry for 10 years and I was always very keen on training because I always thought there was a lot of things you needed to practice as a goalkeeper, not just shooting and crossing. Clem was a little bit more relaxed, people used to say Clem was just a natural goalkeeper. He’d stand there and say: ‘Wide’, whereas I’d dive for it and work myself hard. I would do all these exercises and Clem would do a bit of handling and stuff, and it’s quite a funny story. After I’d finished with England, after the World Cup in 1990, Graham Taylor took over and make me his goalkeeping coach. It was just too soon, because the next squad, I was there training Chris Woods, David Seaman, Dave Beasant, whereas two months earlier, I was like the No.1. It lasted seven months, and anyway, cut a long story short, Clem then became England’s goalkeeping coach a bit further along the line, and I went to the side of the pitch for an England training session doing something for Sky, and there was Clem training Paul Robinson – and he was using all of my goalkeeping exercises! I shouted: ‘Clem, you’re using my exercises!’. He just looked and smiled because we were big mates, as if to say: ‘Yes, I know Shilts!’”
On the uniqueness of the position
Kasper Schmeichel said: “You’re in such a unique position. It’s such a specialised position and nobody really knows, unless you’ve been in the goal, you have no idea the kind of pressure that you’re under. You have such a respect for your colleagues and the respect is mutual. They know that it’s important that you get along. A lot of my really good friends have been my so-called ‘rivals’ over the years, but we just have a unique insight and perspective into what each other is going through, and into each other’s lives and how we’re feeling in every moment. You know exactly how your mate’s feeling when he makes a great save or if he does one thing, or doesn’t make a mistake. You know exactly how they’re feeling, and unless you’ve stood in the goal yourself, you just don’t know.”
Peter Shilton said: “It’s a one-off position. People sometimes used to say: ‘Let me have the jersey, I’ll go in goal, it’s easy’. You used to be able to do that. You probably wouldn’t now because it’s so professional now! But you’d get an outfield player go in goal in a practice match or something. After 10 minutes, they say: ‘I’m not having this’, and they take the jersey off. They realised it wasn’t as easy as they thought it was!”